{"id":33376,"date":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=33376"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","slug":"dhs-was-designed-as-a-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=33376","title":{"rendered":"DHS Was Designed as a Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n  <iframe src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/intercept-presents\/dhs-was-designed-as-a-weapon?accentColor=111111&amp;bgColor=f5f6f7&amp;logo=false\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"acast-player__embed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(acast)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-underline\">A fresh wave<\/span> of outrage over the Trump administration\u2019s use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has surged after two high-profile events involving ICE in the span of a week: the shooting of a young father in New York City last Thursday, and the Monday morning <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/15\/ice-omar-raid-midterms-political\/\">Homeland Security Investigations raid<\/a> on Rep. Ilhan Omar\u2019s home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reporting from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/ilhan-omar-investigation-aims-to-build-case-for-stripping-her-citizenship-6adf1edc\">Wall Street Journal<\/a> suggests that the raid was a part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to strip the Minnesota Democrat of her U.S. citizenship. Omar arrived in the United States as a child refugee from Somalia and became a naturalized citizen in 2000, long before the start of her political career. The outspoken progressive congresswoman has since become a foe of President Donald Trump; in a statement, her spokesperson condemned the raid on her home as \u201can unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Omar\u2019s House colleague, Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., argues this sort of weaponization is an <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/06\/spencer-ackerman-9-11-terrorists-ice\/\">inherent feature<\/a> of the Department of Homeland Security, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/09\/29\/intercepted-podcast-dhs-immigration-ryan-devereaux\/\">established in 2003<\/a> as part of the George W. Bush administration\u2019s mounting war on terror. This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington speaks with Ramirez about a new bill she introduced on Tuesday to <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/13\/abolish-ice-dhs-delia-ramirez-ilhan-omar\/\">abolish DHS<\/a> and what the raid on Omar\u2019s home reveals about the department.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Department of Homeland Security cannot be reformed. It should be dismantled,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cWhat they did \u2014 just three weeks from an election \u2014 was to attempt to create such paralysis on everyday people. \u2026 If they can do this to one of my colleagues, they can do that to anyone. And it should concern everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington also speaks with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rozina-ali.com\/about-me\">Rozina Ali<\/a> \u2014 a journalist covering the war on terror, Islamophobia, the Middle East, South Asia, and literature \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@willsommer\">Will Sommer<\/a>, a senior reporter covering right-wing media and conspiracy theories at The Bulwark.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ali and Sommer unpack the role of conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim propaganda in the attacks on Omar, and how DHS has been historically weaponized against Muslims in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOver the last 30 years, we have been conditioned to believe that Muslims, and now more broadly immigrants, are not just a threat to national security, but a threat to the American way of life,\u201d said Ali.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe right has been really eager to denaturalize Ilhan Omar for really going back a decade almost to the first Trump administration,\u201d said Sommer. He called the investigation into Omar \u201cone of the most striking examples we\u2019ve seen of how the Trump administration is willing to use law enforcement to achieve its political aims and to sort of threaten its enemies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-intercept-briefing\/id1195206601\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLW0Gy9pTgVnvgbvfd63A9uVpks3-uwudj\">YouTube,<\/a> or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-transcript\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transcript<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jessica Washington:<\/strong> Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I\u2019m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept. On Monday, Homeland Security Investigation agents searched the home of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Reporting from the Washington Post suggests that the probe centers on allegations that Omar\u2019s late father lied on immigration paperwork decades ago when Omar was a teenager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a source familiar with the case who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/10\/13\/rep-omar-investigation-focuses-birthdate-citizenship-papers-people-familiar-say\/\">spoke<\/a> to the paper, the Department of Homeland Security had previously declined to move ahead with an investigation years prior based on similar allegations. There still weren\u2019t many details out as of Wednesday. The Department of Justice has vaguely described a \u201cfederal criminal investigation,\u201d but Omar has long been a political foe of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement to The Intercept, Omar called the raid \u201can outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.\u201d The raid on Omar\u2019s home comes days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/08\/ice-nyc-shooting-federal-agent\/\">shot<\/a> 28-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/oct\/14\/ice-shooting-new-york-city-oscar-belgal\">Oscar Belgal<\/a> in the neck <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/09\/ice-shooting-mamdani-nypd\/\">in New York City<\/a>, with his 5-year-old son in the back seat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The incidents have reignited concerns about the violent weaponization of the Department of Homeland Security by President Donald Trump against immigrants and the administration\u2019s perceived political enemies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group Democracy Defenders Fund filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NormEisen\/status\/2110116328619028533\/photo\/1\">complaint over the raid<\/a> on Tuesday, arguing it violates the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/08\/14\/gaza-justice-department-hatch-act\/\">Hatch Act,<\/a> a federal law that restricts political activity by members of the government\u2019s executive branch. With early voting in Minnesota scheduled to start Friday, the group says the raid \u201cappears to be timed to influence voters in the upcoming midterm election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, introduced a new bill this week to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and abolish immigrant detention in the United States. I\u2019m speaking to her on Wednesday, October 14. Congresswoman Ramirez, welcome back to The Intercept Briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rep. Delia Ramirez:<\/strong> Oh, happy to be on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> First, I wanna get your reaction to the Homeland Security Investigation search of Representative Ilhan Omar\u2019s home on Monday. Were you surprised by the news? And what do you think it tells us about how the Department of Homeland Security is operating under President Donald Trump?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> I\u2019m gonna tell you that, unfortunately, I\u2019m not surprised by what happened \u2014 but it is still bone-chilling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019re talking about a department that was created to have full authority to violate civil rights every single day, now weaponized against a sitting member of Congress \u2014 sending, I don\u2019t know, 20 HSI agents into her home at 4:30 in the morning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cruelty, complete control, and authoritarianism, and demonstrating their ability to get away with whatever they think they can, was the point of what they just did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it is clearly the embodiment of abuse of power. But it also shows us exactly why the Department of Homeland Security cannot be reformed. It should be dismantled. And that what they did \u2014 just three weeks from an election \u2014 was to attempt to create such paralysis on everyday people to believe that if they can do this to one of my colleagues, that they can do that to anyone. And it should concern everyone.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cDemonstrating their ability to get away with whatever they think they can, was the point of what they just did.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyone that cares deeply about our democracy, about our ability to exercise our freedom of speech, or to be protected from being harmed by the federal government should see what is happening to my colleague Ilhan Omar as a clear indicator that this could also happen to them, if we don\u2019t stop them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that justice is not just that she gets her phone back, or they leave her alone. Justice is holding accountable the leadership that made that terrorizing experience for Ilhan happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Speaking of stopping them, I want to get into the bill that you introduced on Tuesday, the Reimagining Safety Act, which would <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/13\/abolish-ice-dhs-delia-ramirez-ilhan-omar\/\">abolish the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, eliminate all immigrant detention, and repeal \u201cduplicative and overreaching terrorism laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, there has been some forward momentum on the movement to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at least from progressives \u2014 but this bill would get rid of all of DHS. Can you talk about how that would work and why, in your opinion, it\u2019s not enough to just abolish ICE?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> I just mentioned to you what\u2019s happening to Congresswoman Omar, and to me, it\u2019s a clear indicator of the greatest threat to our security: It\u2019s not immigrants; it\u2019s the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I know that a lot of people say, DHS is \u201crogue,\u201d we need to address this \u201crogue\u201d organization. But it\u2019s not rogue. I wanna be clear with people. DHS did not exist my entire lifetime. As a matter of fact, it\u2019s been <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/09\/10\/immigration-enforcement-homeland-security-911\/\">operating less than 23 years<\/a>. And it was built exactly to do what it\u2019s doing right now: to <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/06\/spencer-ackerman-9-11-terrorists-ice\/\">violate our rights under pretense of securing our safety<\/a>, and it\u2019s been, in fact, empowered to act with impunity, which is why people keep saying like, \u201cHow can they possibly get away with what they\u2019re doing, and why can\u2019t Congress stop them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because frankly, since its inception, DHS has been utilized by the government to target and persecute people that they consider the public enemy. And we know that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/09\/18\/naomi-klein-astra-taylor-ai-religious-apocalypse-doom\/\">fascism always requires<\/a> a public enemy. <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/09\/04\/911-muslim-islamophobia-terrorist\/\">Muslim Americans<\/a>, Latinos, Haitians, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/12\/minneapolis-15-ice-protesters-prairieland-unions\/\">protesters<\/a>. DHS has never kept us safe. And 24 years ago, Americans, Republicans, and Democrats alike, let\u2019s be clear, raised a flag about how DHS would constitute unprecedented consolidation of power, and yet this agency was still formed under the United States Congress.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe greatest threat to our security is not immigrants; it\u2019s the Department of Homeland Security.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DHS has been a problem of the administration for its entirety. And administration <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/09\/29\/intercepted-podcast-dhs-immigration-ryan-devereaux\/\">after administration<\/a> has demonstrated to us that this agency needs to be completely dismantled piece by piece. And when you have people like Donald Trump with very authoritarian tendencies, you have clearly seen what they\u2019re capable of doing. And frankly, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve seen the full extent of what they could do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So this is a moment for us to ask ourselves: What kind of world do we wanna live in? And do we want to continue to live with the fear that this agency can be weaponized against you, to persecute you, to arrest you, to detain you, to denaturalize you, to attempt to question your own citizenship, to kill you?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And at the same time, ask ourselves: If FEMA and TSA and cybersecurity and the Coast Guard and other critical programs are important for us, how can we allow them to be politicized by this agency that constantly keeps taking away the resources that these critical programs need? And so for me, this is <em>the moment <\/em>that we don\u2019t just abolish ICE or abolish CBP \u2014 we take on the institution that was created to allow ICE and CBP to operate in the way that it does.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cDo we want to continue to live with the fear that this agency can be weaponized against you, to persecute you, to arrest you, to detain you, to denaturalize you, to attempt to question your own citizenship, to kill you?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> To your point, there are all of these other functions of the Department of Homeland Security, from federal disaster relief to TSA screenings to customs enforcement. What happens to all those other functions if DHS is dismantled?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> I\u2019m glad you asked me that question \u2019cause people keep saying, \u201cDo you not care about FEMA?\u201d Actually, <em>because<\/em> I care about FEMA, I want to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">H.R. 10803, the Reimagining Safety Act, it\u2019s a first of its kind bill, and for the very first time, it\u2019s a bill that community stakeholders spent months designing a Cabinet-level department. Because the Reimagining Safety Act would actually establish another department, the Department of Community Safety, that in fact is about protecting our communities. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would dismantle DHS by preserving the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency \u2014 we call it CISA, that was created under the Department of Homeland Security; protecting and expanding the Federal Emergency Management Agency; protecting and redirecting the Transportation Security Agency and custom functions into the Department of Transportation; while abolishing ICE and CBP and reinvesting funds in community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, certainly, I think the other piece of that is the surveillance: limiting government surveillance and reining in the unlawful abuses of data and curb the militarized enforcement that you\u2019re seeing under DHS while beginning the process of taking what we call USCIS, that\u2019s also under the Department of Homeland Security, and establishing it as its own separate <em>civil <\/em>immigration system that no longer operates under this agency that could <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/08\/ice-minneapolis-video-killing-shooting\/\">call Renee Good<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/02\/trump-nspm-7-domestic-terrorist-minneapolis-alex-pretti\/\">Alex Pretti<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/immigration\/2026\/10\/08\/family-of-silverio-villegas-gonzalez-seeks-damages-over-fatal-ice-shooting-near-chicago\">Silverio Villegas<\/a> terrorists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Thinking about your bill \u2014 obviously, Republicans currently control every lever of power, and only a handful of Democrats support abolishing ICE, and fewer still have called to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. Why introduce this bill now, knowing that it likely can\u2019t pass this current Congress, much less get signed by President Donald Trump?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> Every single issue, whether it\u2019s talking about universal healthcare, Medicare for All, whether it\u2019s talking about raising wages \u2014 and now I introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/mejia.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/rep-mejia-and-rep-ramirez-s-25-minimum-wage-bill-introduced-in-the-senate\">Living Wage for All<\/a> \u2014 or blocking bombs and ending endless wars, oftentimes the assumption has been it is too early, or Republicans control, or Democrats have not arrived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The people have arrived to where we are. They believe that this agency is the biggest threat to their well-being. And for me, this is an opportunity to provide a roadmap on how we actually in fact address the problem and then create a solution that centers people\u2019s safety \u2014 and not just rhetoric of protecting the homeland under the guise of protecting us from terrorism, so that they can terrorize us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jessica, I am clear that this bill is not gonna pass overnight, but I am also clear that our community <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/16\/maine-platner-replacement-abolish-ice-shootings\/\">expects for us<\/a> to propose something that is tangible, something that is comprehensive, and something that gets to the root of the problem by creating a permanent solution, so that we\u2019re never here again.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur community expects for us to propose something that is tangible \u2026 that gets to the root of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That means that over the next few months, and perhaps over the next year, we are building the support and changing the conversation in such way where in the same way only nine or 10 of my colleagues were <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/26\/alex-pretti-democrats-abolish-ice\/\">willing to, out loud, say<\/a> \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d two months ago, now we have actually more like 45, 50 of them, that we are in the same place when we\u2019re talking about reimagining safety in this country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore, every single poll that you look at ICE, CBP, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/28\/greg-bovino-tom-homan-ice-deportation-trump-minneapolis\/\">[ousted former CBP head Greg] Bovino<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/07\/11\/congress-outraged-ice-lies\/\">[ousted former DHS head Kristi] Noem<\/a>, immigration enforcement, and the fear of surveillance and losing our civil rights is top concern for the American people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am providing a bill that begins to respond to what our communities are demanding. I\u2019m hoping that Congress doesn\u2019t continue to be behind the ball of what the people are asking of them. And now I\u2019m giving them something that they could actually in fact use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wanna tell you too that, look, in 2002, people expressed concerns about DHS. And 25 years later, those warnings have been validated as we watch what they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s a weapon pointed at anyone that the state considers a public enemy, whether it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/aug\/26\/lamonica-mciver-delaney-hall-criminal-charges\">Congresswoman LaMonica McIver<\/a>, whether it\u2019s Congresswoman Omar, or the millions of people in this precise moment that are living in fear because of the way that this agency was created.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think this is also an opportunity, Jessica, for us to actually educate the world around the fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/09\/29\/intercepted-podcast-dhs-immigration-ryan-devereaux\/\">DHS was not created as a Cabinet department from our Founding Fathers<\/a> \u2014 that we were OK before 2003 without DHS, and we can live in a life without it as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe were OK before 2003 without DHS, and we can live in a life without it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> On the subject of looking to the future, if Democrats take one or both houses of Congress in the upcoming midterms, I\u2019m curious what else you\u2019re thinking about in terms of reining in DHS, and if you have any other priorities for the next session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> Let me just come back to this bill, \u2019cause I think it\u2019s really important \u2014 my own bottom line on it. The Reimagining Safety Act takes apart DHS and creates a new agency, a new agency that responds to what people are asking for \u2014 for we the people that they\u2019ve elected to represent them, to keep them safe, to protect the mission of community safety, and to protect the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it means that dismantling DHS is doing the work Congress should have done actually 24 years ago, to actually look at these agencies, all agencies under this department, but also how DOJ has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/nov\/04\/trump-department-of-justice-weaponization-enemies\">weaponized<\/a> against us. How we created a Department of <em>War<\/em>. Just think about that: We\u2019ve created a department where we <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/22\/ndaa-defense-bill-pentagon-israel-massie\/\">want<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/01\/trump-military-true-cost-budget-pentagon-trillions\/\">spend more<\/a> money <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/03\/17\/trump-iran-war-cost\/\">on war<\/a> than we want to actually spend on housing, on healthcare, on wages, and on infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So for me, this is a moment for us to actually demonstrate that we\u2019re going to fight like hell for accountability, to take on corruption, to end the terror, while also creating tangible ways to address the issues. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And one of those, and I\u2019m going to be introducing a resolution [Thursday] around what should our positioning be when it comes to immigration. Because this agency is about what is wrong and what needs to stop so that we can actually have safety, but then we also need to talk about how we <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/06\/05\/border-asylum-biden-executive-order\/\">restore our systems of asylum<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/02\/02\/open-borders-immigration-book\/\">h<\/a>ow we actually in fact <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/02\/02\/open-borders-immigration-book\/\">establish legal pathways<\/a>, and how do we bring 11 million people who are in fear, in the shadows, crying daily, to finally come out of the shadows into a justice status.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am gonna be working really hard to make that front and center with our leadership, and I\u2019m disappointed that our leadership isn\u2019t centering that as one of the very first things that they wanna work on in the first 100 days. Because unfortunately, that is telling the people that have been under siege by this administration: Being an immigrant or being brown or being a protester isn\u2019t the top priority of people that need to be protected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When our leadership is talking about first 100 days of many important things, but not a word around immigration, and not a word around real accountability to what has happened under ICE and CBP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Thank you, Congresswoman. We\u2019re gonna leave it there, but people can <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/13\/abolish-ice-dhs-delia-ramirez-ilhan-omar\/\">read more about your bill<\/a>, the Reimagining Safety Act, at theintercept.com, where we have a story out about it. And thank you so much for joining The Intercept Briefing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DR:<\/strong> Thank you. Appreciate it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jessica Washington:<\/strong> Next, I speak with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rozina-ali.com\/about-me\">Rozina Ali<\/a>, a journalist covering the war on terror, Islamophobia, the Middle East, South Asia, and literature; and <a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@willsommer\">Will Sommer<\/a>, a senior reporter covering right-wing media and conspiracy theories at The Bulwark. Will, welcome to the Intercept Briefing, and Rozina, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/09\/04\/911-muslim-islamophobia-terrorist\/\">welcome back<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. 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In your new book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/672414\/seasons-of-fury-by-rozina-ali\/\">Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America<\/a>,\u201d you discuss the history of how immigration enforcement has been weaponized against Muslims in the United States. And while I want to preface by saying that there\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t know about the raid on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar\u2019s home, we do know that Omar is outspoken, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/03\/26\/ilhan-omar-aipac-black-muslim-woman\/\">Muslim, Black, and an immigrant<\/a>. She\u2019s also been a consistent target of Trump and his allies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How might this relate to the broader history of how the Department of Homeland Security has been weaponized against Muslims in the United States?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> Well, I really appreciate this question. There\u2019s a very long history when it comes to using immigration enforcement to target Muslims and the Muslim community in the United States, and I just wanna go back a little bit before 9\/11 to the late 1990s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing that was happening was the use of secret evidence against Muslim immigrants, a lot of Arabs and South Asians, and a lot of Muslim immigrants, to, essentially, detain them and deport them. And what that meant was actually using classified evidence that the government brought forward that the defendant could not see. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it actually kind of reminds me of what\u2019s happening with Ilhan Omar now, is that we don\u2019t actually know what the allegations are. We don\u2019t know what the case is hinged on. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What the DHS did after 9\/11 was actually broaden out its use of immigration enforcement to target Muslim communities. One of the things it did was actually institute a registry called the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/immigrants-rights\/immigrants-rights-and-detention\/national-security-entry-exit-registration\">National Security Entry-Exit Registration System<\/a>. That essentially allowed the U.S. government to detain thousands of Muslim immigrants and eventually deport them \u2014 even though they had no criminal charges. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the things that protects Ilhan Omar is that she is a U.S. citizen, but one of the things that does chill me is there is this longer, broader history of the government using immigration enforcement in order to deport people and detain people, even if they have not been guilty of any criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> That makes a lot of sense, the concern, because we know there\u2019s history of this power being used in secretive ways, kind of similar to what\u2019s potentially happening now. And I do, again, want to caution that we do not have all the details on this case at the moment. But Will, I wanted to bring you in to kind of get into the origins at least where some of these conspiracy theories that have been swirling around Congresswoman Omar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You wrote about this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/latest-right-wing-revolt-against-dhs-secretary-markwayne-mullin-benny-johnson-ilhan-omar\">in September<\/a>, kind of where you found that many in MAGA world were frustrated that after nearly a decade of conspiracy theories \u2014 some of which were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/clip\/white-house-event\/president-trump-weighs-in-on-allegation-rep-omar-was-married-to-her-brother\/4808113\">pushed by Trump<\/a> about alleged immigration fraud from Omar \u2014 she remains not only in the United States, but in Congress. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will, can you explain some of the conspiracy theories that are fueling this push to deport Omar? Is there any evidence for them? And do we know if they had anything to do with the raid on her home?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> The right has been really eager to denaturalize Ilhan Omar for really going back a decade, almost to the first Trump administration. A lot of it was fueled by this idea that she had married her brother as some kind of immigration scheme, or essentially that this man she was married to was secretly her brother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I looked into the origins of this at the time. I thought, \u201cWell, is this true? Could it be?\u201d No, it\u2019s not. In fact, it all started on some random kinda Somali Minnesotan message board where someone said, \u201cYeah, she\u2019s married to her brother.\u201d And then from there, once she became <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2019\/02\/28\/exclusive-ilhan-omar-speaks-out-on-her-twitter-scandal-anti-semitism-and-a-progressive-foreign-policy\/\">more prominent<\/a> as a <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2023\/11\/27\/israel-democrats-aipac-book\/\">Democratic figure<\/a>, people on the right kinda dug through that and sort of built this whole conspiracy theory based off of this one post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Essentially, now that Trump is back in power, there\u2019s this demand on the right because, as with other conspiracy theories, they\u2019ve come to believe this. So they\u2019re saying, you know, \u201cOh man, when are we finally gonna deport Ilhan Omar?\u201d So Markwayne Mullin, the head of DHS, has been under this pressure, and he gave this <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bennyjohnson\/status\/2098209805215080868\/video\/1\">interview<\/a> at the Republican convention to [right-wing YouTuber] Benny Johnson, and he said, \u201cOh yeah, she married her brother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Benny Johnson said, \u201cWell, OK. Are you gonna deport her?\u201d Now, you kinda can\u2019t deport her anyway, even if she had married her brother. But there\u2019s all this demand. And so what we\u2019re seeing with this latest investigation is it\u2019s not even related to the brother thing,  reportedly. It\u2019s \u2014 according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/10\/13\/rep-omar-investigation-focuses-birthdate-citizenship-papers-people-familiar-say\/\">Washington Post<\/a> and some other outlets \u2014 related to this idea that Ilhan Omar\u2019s father, who is dead now, misstated her age on a citizenship application.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Essentially, she was 17, according to the official record. But had she been a year older, 18, it would\u2019ve kind of complicate it because she would\u2019ve been an adult. It would\u2019ve made it harder for her to get citizenship. This is this idea that\u2019s been pushed by her Republican opponents in elections in the past. It\u2019s really thin, and we can kinda get into it in a second. But this is some thin gruel, essentially, that they\u2019re trying to manufacture this whole effort to pull her citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> I really wanna get more into the conspiracy theory of it and what\u2019s being pushed here. And I think it\u2019s interesting that it\u2019s almost like they\u2019re kind of grasping at any little thing they can get their hands on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At first, it\u2019s the brother-marriage of it all, which, as you pointed out, has very thin evidence, essentially no evidence. And then it\u2019s pulling at these other threads about her dad, which have all been swirling in the ecosystem for a while.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want to get a little bit deeper into what conspiracy theories, what role they have here, and I want to talk about what Donald Trump said on Monday night after the raid. He spoke at an Ohio rally <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/f8dvU67njK8?si=GeXDmpig66MUr04R&amp;t=12\">pushing more conspiracy theories<\/a> about Rep. Ilhan Omar and the Somali community in Minnesota in general. Let\u2019s hear that clip now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Trump:<\/strong> Just look at what\u2019s happening in the once great state of Minnesota. What a mess they have done. Somalia, wonderful, wonderful. And that Ilhan, somebody was asking me, I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing with her, but I can tell you this: She\u2019s a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, without \u2014 all they do is shoot each other. And she comes into our country, and she says, \u201cI have a constitutional right.\u201d She\u2019s got a constitutional right. She\u2019s telling us about the Constitution, and she comes from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet. Last week, savage Somali gang members shot two people in the high school parking lot in the middle of a football game. Just days later, a few miles away, the FBI arrested a radicalized Somalian who was planning to carry out an ISIS-style terrorist attack at the Mall of America, aiming to kill as many as possible, in his words. This is not what we want in this country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Crowd: <\/strong>Deport! Deport! Deport! Deport!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Trump:<\/strong> What they have done to Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Rozina, this isn\u2019t the first time we\u2019ve seen the administration spread conspiracy theories about Muslims. Ahead of Operation Metro Surge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilrc.org\/immigration-enforcement\/federal-tracking\/large-scale-raids\/minneapolis-mn-operation-metro-surge\">in Minneapolis<\/a>, for example, we heard <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/31\/nick-shirley-videos-minnesota-somali-day-cares-fraud-claims\/\">similar rhetoric about the Somali community<\/a>. What role have conspiracy theories played in the targeting of Muslims in the United States?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> Oh, where to start?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Yeah, there\u2019s a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> There is a lot. I think one of the most enduring theories of Muslim communities is that there are radical elements that are living among Muslim neighborhoods, among Muslim communities. And that is a conspiracy theory born out of, obviously, the war on terror framework.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But one of the things that we saw in the aughts, especially under the Obama administration and especially as Trump rose in power, was this notion that Muslims, not just foreign elements, but Muslims living inside the United States are secretly hiding their agenda. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this is something that we hear with regards to Abdul El-Sayed, that basically any Muslim that you meet is hiding a secret agenda, and what they wanna do is enact Sharia law in the United States. No one has yet to explain what Sharia law means and what that would mean to enact it, but this is one of the things that keeps coming up over and over again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is so interesting about this speech that Trump made recently is that he is actually throwing every theory against the wall that he can. That he mentions ISIS \u2014 something we haven\u2019t heard for a long time. He mentions radicalization. He mentions fraud. And so all of these things that have been talking points that have been used against Muslim communities, particularly against the Somali community in Minnesota, he is using all at once in this one speech.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhat is so interesting about this speech that Trump made recently is that he is actually throwing every theory against the wall that he can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will say, this is also the talking points \u2014 well, fraud is a new one \u2014 but when it comes to radicalization and when it comes to the notion of radical elements threatening the security and Western way of life of the United States, these are talking points he was peddling back in 2015 when he eventually called for a Muslim ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we may remember, one of his first executive orders when he became president in January 2017 was to sign an executive order <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2017\/01\/29\/trumps-muslim-ban-triggers-chaos-heartbreak-and-resistance\/\">banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is actually something that we see Donald Trump doing a lot, which is, he <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/23\/trump-campaign-conspiracy-theories\/\">peddles conspiracy theories<\/a>. He puts them on the main stage. His allies reinforce them and regurgitate them, and he gives them legitimacy, right? He legitimizes them by using a government framework to offer some veneer of truth to them. And unfortunately, as we know, one iteration of the Muslim ban was eventually <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/06\/27\/trump-travel-ban-supreme-court-decision-muslim\/\">upheld by the Supreme Court.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> As Rozina said, fraud is kind of a newer iteration of these kind of Muslim conspiracy theories. Where did it originate from, and why has it become such a powerful talking point on the right when targeting particularly the Somali community in Minnesota?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> I should say: Minnesota has a very \u2014 despite being a Democratic state \u2014 it has a very intense Republican activist and kind of like quasi-journalist scene going on. And so a lot of that has been built around, again, building, talking about Ilhan Omar. And now we\u2019ve seen it kinda going after the Somali community in various ways. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But really, this hit a new level in January with this young man named <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/31\/nick-shirley-videos-minnesota-somali-day-cares-fraud-claims\/\">Nick Shirley<\/a>, who\u2019s like a YouTuber. He went around, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/03\/minnesota-fraud-video-somalis-nick-shirley-source\/\">led around<\/a> by one of these Minnesota conservative journalist types to various daycares, and they said,\u201dLook at the fraud here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now look, there are some criminal fraud cases that are being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2026\/05\/21\/aimee-bock-feeding-our-future-fraud-sentencing\">prosecuted<\/a> in Minnesota. But there was this broader sense created by this video of, like the Somali community are parasitic, that they\u2019re up to no good, they\u2019re stealing all this money, what have you. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then in fact, that helped justify then \u2014 at least in the view of the Trump administration \u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/06\/trump-ice-minnesota-somali\/\">ICE surge<\/a> into <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/17\/somali-resistance-ice-patrol-minneapolis\/\">Minneapolis<\/a>. And so this has created this idea of constant Somali American fraud, not just in Minnesota, but <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/04\/08\/maine-wire-conservative-news-leonard-leo-somalis\/\">all over the place<\/a>. And so obviously it dovetails with the Ilhan Omar idea as well, that she forged her citizenship, she somehow faked that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> That makes a lot of sense. It is really interesting to see the way the administration targeted Minnesota, both because of the Somali community, which was particularly vulnerable, because as we\u2019ve mentioned this is both a Black, immigrant, and Muslim community, so this trifecta of areas that the Trump administration is targeting. And then also you had Ilhan Omar, who was this image that the administration could attack and go after, and it was really popular to their base to do so. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rozina, when we\u2019re talking about the stories that kind of stick when it comes to conspiracy theories, what sort of stuff has really stuck and why? I\u2019m curious to understand why in the imagination of so many people in the U.S. these conspiracy theories have really stuck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> I think one of the most enduring theories that keeps coming up over and over again and that really has stuck is this notion that, as I mentioned, that Muslims have nefarious secret agendas, but also that they have ties to foreign organizations and foreign elements. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And one of the things that we hear with regards to Ilhan Omar, too, is that \u2014 and I think I\u2019ve heard this from some right-wing talking points in the previous days \u2014 is that there might be allegations that she has some financial ties or connections to foreign groups. This is something we have heard about Zohran Mandani. This is something we have heard about <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/27\/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-aipac-senate-michigan\/\">Abdul El-Sayed<\/a>. This is actually something that has been a part of the American narrative about Muslims for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the crucial things that was happening in the \u201990s was that the U.S. government was looking for financial ties to foreign organizations among the Muslim community. And one of the things that happened immediately after 9\/11 was that the United States government shut down the <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/po841\">biggest Muslim charity in the United States<\/a>, called the Holy Land Foundation, because of alleged nefarious ties to militant groups abroad. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because there has been a government framework for this, I think it is really easy for a lot of conspiracy theorists and for a lot of Islamophobes, frankly, to keep regurgitating this notion that \u201cjust look at the financial ties of Muslims.\u201d And one of the lasting shifts that we have seen in the last 25 years is that that scrutiny is not just against Muslim immigrants or visa holders, but also against Muslim Americans and citizens of the United States. And I don\u2019t think we\u2019re actually going to be able to break out of those conspiracy theories so easily if we don\u2019t actually start discussing and reckoning with how we think about what terrorism is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So for example, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/08\/05\/holy-land-foundation-trial-palestine-israel\/\">Holy Land Foundation case<\/a>, that is a case that keeps coming up over and over again. A lot of those ties, financial ties, it\u2019s a really complicated case, but a lot of those financial ties were related to Hamas, but it\u2019s also relevant to remember that Hamas at the time was a governing body in Gaza that was supplying aid to people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And essentially, the way we talk about terrorism, the way we talk about countries abroad, has a real impact for how we think about the Muslim community at home. So I just wanna go back to Abdul El-Sayed for just really quickly, is that one of the biggest talking points peddled against him these days is that his mother is <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/nation-world\/tight-michigan-senate-race-roiled-by-scrutiny-of-el-sayed-family-muslim-brotherhood-claims-terrorist-group-egypt-saudi-arabia-united-arab-emirates-half-sister-social-media-posts-mb-mike-rogers-politics-midterms\">connected to the Muslim Brotherhood<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, there\u2019s very little understanding of what it had meant to be a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, right? Because we just see that through the lens of terrorism, it\u2019s completely dismissing all the political dynamics on the ground in those countries abroad. And I think what a lot of conspiracy theorists and Islamophobes have done so effectively is forever tie Muslim communities in the U.S. to what Americans largely think of as nefarious elements in other countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s all really important, recognizing, to your point, that none of these conspiracy theories \u2014 I mean, again, they had taken new iterations \u2014 but that conspiracy theories against Muslims in the United States is not a new phenomenon. I guess I am curious if we\u2019re moving into a new phase though, of danger, essentially, from the administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will, coming back to your September piece, in it you compare the calls to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar to the Department of Justice\u2019s attempts at convicting the president\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-military-orders-democrats-video-e1435655587ad9715c4d1cc776edd545\">political enemies<\/a>. And those have, for the most part failed, in terms of getting these convictions, \u201clocking up\u201d his enemies, as he\u2019s said he wants to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does this raid of a sitting congresswoman\u2019s home signal a new, more dangerous era from the White House when it comes to threats against the administration\u2019s perceived political enemies? Are we entering a new, more dangerous phase?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> I think the raid represents sort of the confluence of two alarming trends. One is what we\u2019ve been talking about, which is the growing, second tide of Islamophobia that we\u2019re seeing from this administration, that I think was sort of on the back burner as there was so much <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/04\/20\/trump-racism-white-demographic-fears-immigration\/\">promotion on the right<\/a> about <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/11\/kamala-harris-debate-immigration\/\">fears about immigration<\/a> from Latin America. Now, we see in Texas there\u2019s so much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/17\/us\/politics\/islamophobia-texas.html\">anger at Muslim communities<\/a> in that area in particular. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re also seeing though, as you said, the politicization of the Justice Department. I mean, this raid falls within the 60 days. Typically, the DOJ doesn\u2019t raid politicians this close to an election, particularly something that\u2019s about a 30-years-old child immigration case. Clearly, it\u2019s political. It\u2019s an attempt to make Ilhan Omar the face of the Democratic Party, suggest all this fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Look, a lot of those attacks, those political lawfare, what have you, is related to Israel and Palestine, people like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/sep\/22\/spain-extradition-request-james-fergie-chambers\">Fergie Chambers<\/a>, Max Blumenthal, have either faced indictments or had their <a href=\"https:\/\/adc.org\/case\/blumenthal-v-mullin\/\">devices seized, <\/a>in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/07\/27\/breakthrough-news-journalists-subpoena\/\">Max Blumenthal\u2019s case<\/a>. Certainly a lot of it aimed at campus activists as well. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think the Ilhan Omar thing is really one of the most striking examples we\u2019ve seen of how the Trump administration is willing to use law enforcement to achieve its political aims and to threaten its enemies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe Ilhan Omar [raid] is one of the most striking examples we\u2019ve seen of how the Trump administration is willing to use law enforcement to achieve its political aims and threaten its enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> You mentioned that post-Watergate 60-day rule, which is an unwritten policy designating a blackout period effectively before elections during which the Department of Justice is not supposed to conduct activity which could influence voters. There\u2019s also the Hatch Act, which states that government employees cannot use their authority or influence to interfere with or affect an election. There was actually a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NormEisen\/status\/2110116328619028533\/photo\/1\">Hatch Act complaint<\/a> filed yesterday by a watchdog group over the raid on Ilhan Omar\u2019s house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this point, Will, with an administration that has already done so much over the years without consequence, does the Hatch Act and do these other kind of long-standing norms serve any purpose or any protection?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> No. At this point, unfortunately, I think the Hatch Act is a dead letter in terms of, no one\u2019s gonna enforce it, at least until Democrats retake some kind of power. Look, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/10\/12\/nx-s1-5998976\/pro-trump-ads-taxpayer-funds-federal-judge\">administration is using government money to buy political ads<\/a>, outright political ads. And so certainly, I think they\u2019re going to unfortunately be able to get away with things like raiding a congresswoman\u2019s house. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think really it\u2019s just become, the idea that they would use Justice Department or DHS to achieve political aims is just understood now that that\u2019s something Trump is gonna do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> And Rozina, from your perspective, does this raid to you signal a kind of new, more dangerous era, for not just the president\u2019s political enemies, but also disfavored groups?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> Yeah, I want to just go back specifically to the Somali community living in the United States. It is telling that President Trump disparaged the country of Somalia as he also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/jun\/16\/why-us-bombing-somalia-who-airstrikes-killing-shabaab-islamists\">bombs this country<\/a> with hundreds of <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/05\/23\/largest-airstrike-somalia-us\/\">airstrikes<\/a> in the past year alone, displacing more people and causing more people to search for refuge abroad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We mentioned the ICE Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota last December. Trump was talking about the Somali community in Minnesota, and ostensibly fraud was the reason, one of the reasons, for which he sent ICE agents into the city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the things that the government learned very quickly was that a lot of Somalis living in Minnesota <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/06\/trump-ice-minnesota-somali\/\">are actually citizens<\/a>. They are naturalized or that they were born here, and they could not be easily picked up and detained or deported, even though there were some who were. Yet what happened in the months after Operation Metro Surge was that it really <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/17\/somali-resistance-ice-patrol-minneapolis\/\">chilled the Somali community living in the city<\/a>. Even though there were so many people who did go out and protest and help each other, there were a lot who basically <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/12\/trump-immigrant-food-aid-minneapolis\/\">stayed at home<\/a>. And I actually spoke with several people who would not leave their house for months. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, one of the things that really frightens me about what the DOJ and DHS did with regards to Ilhan Omar is that it is actually expanding the war against Somalis. It\u2019s now seeing ways in which to not just frighten asylum-seekers and refugees and visa holders, but also naturalized citizens.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhat this administration has done so effectively is actually telling everyone that there are some communities who are no longer protected the way they used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I think what this administration has done so effectively is actually telling everyone that there are some communities who are no longer protected the way they used to be. And we saw that also in the context of, for example, the arrest of <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/10\/02\/mahmoud-khalil-ice-palestine\/\">Mahmoud Khalil<\/a> and pro-Palestine protesters. We are seeing a level in which government is used to target people who before would have protections from the government, and now they are being told that they are actually vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Ilhan Omar, it\u2019s possible that nothing comes of this raid, and things will just go back to normal. But what worries me is the larger chilling effect on the community, including now naturalized citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Trump aside, the Trump administration aside, Rozina, is this just the logical endpoint of effectively decades of crafting a federal domestic surveillance and police state that is laser-focused on immigrants and Muslim Americans?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> Yes, it is, right? One of the things that has happened over the 20, or last 25 years has been one immense power that has been concentrated in the executive branch. This notion that when it comes to national security, the government has a lot of leeway to violate people\u2019s civil rights But the other thing \u2014 one of the other enduring legacies of the last 30 years \u2014 is precisely what the American public is willing to accept.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe have been conditioned to believe that Muslims \u2026 are not just a threat to national security, but a threat to American way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And over the last 30 years, we have been conditioned to believe that Muslims, and now more broadly immigrants, are not just a threat to national security, but a threat to American way of life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And again, Trump is able to throw everything \u2014 when it comes to Ilhan Omar and the Somali community \u2014 throw everything at them. They\u2019re a threat to national security. They are threatening how we live in this country. They are threatening what it means to be American. They are taking away our money and our dollars, and he is using all of these talking points to help build up public support for this agenda against the Somali community. I don\u2019t think such a blatant targeting and explicit targeting would have been met with such support even in, for example, October or November 2001.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> I think those are all very good points. I hate when people say this is the only form of acceptable bigotry, because I can frankly say that there are many forms of acceptable bigotry. But the extent to which Islamophobia is a part of American culture is accepted, I think is not just troubling, it\u2019s decades of conditioning, as you\u2019ve pointed out. It is decades of feeding these conspiracy theories, of repeating them until they feel almost natural to so many of us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I want to give you both an opportunity to just share any final thoughts. Will, I want to start with you. Is there anything else that you\u2019d wanna add?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> As this case goes forward, it\u2019ll be interesting to see what it looks like. But the idea that Ilhan Omar lied about her birthday or whatever is all based on, there was this one congressional website that said she was born in 1981 instead of 1982. And so Republicans have seized on this. Look, it\u2019s one website, right? I looked in the court records, all this stuff. Before she became famous, she was listing her birthday as 1982, all this stuff. And so if that\u2019s gonna be the crux of it, that one website had a typo, I don\u2019t think the administration\u2019s gonna have a lot to run on here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> There\u2019s very thin evidence for some of these conspiracy theories, although people will take very thin evidence and run with them. Rozina, any final thoughts from you?\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWhat does this mean for denaturalization efforts across the board?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> I agree with Will, I don\u2019t think that the government has that much to go on. It seems to be very thin evidence. But again, it is government resources that are being used to basically go on a, what appears to be for right now, a witch hunt. But again, what worries me is the more lasting effects of this, which is, what does this mean for denaturalization efforts across the board? And there seems to be not just support for it, but also a deliberate desire to run with such an agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> And we\u2019re gonna leave it there. But Will, Rozina, thank you both so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WS:<\/strong> Thank you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RA:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> That does it for this episode. We wanna hear from you. Tell us what you\u2019re following or want to see more coverage of. Email us at podcasts@theintercept.com, or leave us a voicemail at 530-PODCAST. That\u2019s 530-763-2278. This episode was produced by Andrew Stelzer. Laura Flynn is our supervising producer. Jordan Uhl is our social media producer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ben Muessig is our editor in chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Nara Shin is our copy editor. William Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow. Slipstream provided our theme music. This show and our reporting at The Intercept do not exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com\/join. And if you haven\u2019t already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. Do leave us a rating or review. It helps other listeners find our reporting. Until next time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#DHS #Designed #Weapon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fresh wave of outrage over t&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}