Donald Trump’s administration is facing questions over whether it is using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “surveil political opponents” after after an investigative agent was apparently stationed outside Democratic representative Ilhan Omar’s monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota.
After the incident, Omar demanded the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarify whether Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have been used to monitor “any other activity” involving “local, state, or federal officials” in the state.
In a letter to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an arm of ICE, the congresswoman said an agent claiming to be conducting an undercover drug operation was parked outside the community center where she was holding an event last Thursday, without prior coordination with local law enforcement.
According to Omar, who represents Minnesota’s fifth congressional district, a Richfield police officer noticed the agent sitting in a Ford Explorer and “became suspicious of the way she was monitoring the building”.
“He proceeded to run the plates attached to the vehicle and discovered they were registered to a different vehicle,” said Omar. “He approached the woman in the vehicle to ask about the purpose for her presence there and why the plates on her vehicle did not match the government’s records. Like any reasonable officer, he was concerned that she harbored ill intentions and may be in a stolen vehicle.”
The woman initially identified herself as security, but later called her supervisor and said she was an HSI agent conducting an undercover drug operation in the area, Omar said. Richfield police had not been informed of the operation beforehand, according the congresswoman.
Omar said that despite a visible sign indicating that a town hall was taking place at the community center, the agent remained parked there until speaking with her supervisor, after which she left the property.
“HSI’s actions yesterday evening put an entire community at risk,” she said. “Instead of monitoring the area for those who might wish harm to me and my constituents, Richfield Police were required to devote time to investigating why an HSI agent was outside of a Congressional event in a vehicle with mismatched plates.”
Omar added: “It also raises serious and uncomfortable questions about the purpose of HSI’s presence outside of my event. At best, your agent was unable to assess that the parking lot of a community center hosting a congressional event wasn’t the best place to conduct a drug operation.
“At worst, it emphasizes many Americans’ growing concern that the Trump administration uses ICE to surveil political opponents and may interfere with our democracy.”
In her letter, Omar is demanding answers about why the agent was at the community center, how the agent and her supervisor knew she was holding a town hall there and what action they took in response to that knowledge.
The Guardian has contacted DHS for comment.
Inside the department, HSI is a federal law enforcement agency and the main investigative branch of ICE. ICE operations in Minnesota have sparked widespread protests across the state this year and have also resulted in the deaths of two Americans, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who were killed by federal agents.
In January, a man sprayed Omar with an unidentified substance from a syringe during a town hall where she called for ICE to be abolished “for good”.
The incident drew widespread condemnation from local and state leaders, with Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey calling it “unacceptable” and saying: “We can disagree without putting people at risk.”
