The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “disappearing U.S. citizens” a “ridiculous lie,” in a statement shared Sunday with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
While at an anti-ICE protest with fellow Democratic Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison, Omar accused the agency, under the Trump administration, of “disappearing” people, including U.S. citizens. The Somali-born congresswoman also claimed this “is a brand new policy” which “hasn’t happened before.”
“When people are disappeared in the darkness, American democracy dies, and it is really important for every single person in this country to understand that they are not only disappearing people who have committed crimes, who are in this country undocumented. They are disappearing U.S. citizens,” Omar told reporters Saturday, three days after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good in Omar’s district.
“ICE does not ‘disappear’ people. This is a ridiculous lie that the media is peddling to demonize ICE law enforcement who are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the DCNF, referring Sunday to statistics her agency cited in a Thursday press release. ICE is an agency of DHS.
“ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens,” McLaughlin continued. “If a U.S. citizen is arrested, it is because they have obstructed or assaulted law enforcement. Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens. This violence against ICE must end.”
Omar’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request to clarify what Omar meant by the term “disappearing” and for specific examples of ICE, under the Trump administration, “disappearing” U.S. citizens.
VIDEO – Rep. Ilhan Omar: ‘When People Are Disappeared in the Darkness, American Democracy Dies’ @IlhanMN https://t.co/Dbt3DNK108
— Grabien (@GrabienMedia) January 10, 2026
Do you agree with Ilhan Omar's claim that ICE is disappearing U.S. citizens?
In her remarks at the Saturday protest, Omar also claimed ICE is “disappearing people who have proper documentation, sometimes telling them that their documentations are wrong, keeping them for days upon days.”
“We’ve also seen people be deported who have proper documentation yet to be returned to this country,” the Democrat added. “This should not be allowed in a country that roots in itself in freedom and liberty.”
DHS previously confronted the narrative that ICE is deporting U.S. citizens in an April 30, 2025 press release.
“The media has FALSELY claimed that ICE is deporting US citizen children of illegal aliens. This is false,” the agency said in the release, referring to reporting by legacy media outlets that month. “In both cases the mother made the determination to take her children with her back to Honduras.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in April 2025 called headlines stating the Trump administration was deporting U.S. citizen children “misleading.”
“If someone is in this country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported,” Rubio told NBC News’s Kristen Welker at the time. “If that person [who] is with a two-year-old child or has a two-year-old child says, ‘I want to take my child with me,’ well, then you have two choices. You can say, ‘Yes, of course you can take your child whether they’re a citizen or not because it’s your child,’ or you can say, ‘Yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind.’”
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