Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar claimed Wednesday her guest at the previous day’s State of the Union address was “forcibly removed” from the House chamber and then arrested.
Omar wrote in a statement that her guest, Minneapolis resident Aliya Rahman, was removed by U.S. Capitol Police officers after she “stood up silently in the [House] gallery during the president’s speech for a short period of time, part of which other guests were also standing.” Omar also claimed in the statement that Rahman’s removal occurred “despite warning officers about her injured shoulders and ultimately charged with ‘Unlawful Conduct.’”
“Reports indicate she [Rahman] was aggressively handled until someone intervened to secure medical attention,” Omar said in the statement. “She was taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and later booked at the United States Capitol Police headquarters.”
“The heavy-handed response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy,” the Minnesota Democrat continued.
Omar added that she is calling for “a full explanation of why this arrest occurred.”
“All State of the Union tickets clearly explain that demonstrating is prohibited,” The U.S. Capitol Police told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement on Thursday. “At approximately 10:07 p.m., a person in the House Gallery started demonstrating during the State of the Union Address. The guest was told to sit down, but refused to obey our lawful orders. It is illegal to disrupt the Congress and demonstrate in the Congressional Buildings, so 43-year-old Aliya M. Rahman of Minneapolis, MN, was arrested for D.C. Code §10-503.16 – Unlawful Conduct, Disruption of Congress.”
Omar’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. Rahman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rahman told left-wing news program Democracy Now! in a Wednesday interview that she was released early that morning. She also told the news outlet that “there are only two things you can do at the State of the Union, and they are sit down and stand up,” adding she was “arrested for standing up.”
“I was not just removed and arrested. I was arrested so physically that two other attendees upstairs attempted to intervene in officers pulling on my shoulders after I told them I have a torn rotator cuff tendon and multiple cartilage tears in both of my shoulders,” Rahman said during the interview. “That is what happened in the audio you just played. That is why I cannot lift my arms normally.”
Alexa Van Brunt, an attorney for the MacArthur Justice Center who represents Rahman, told the Minnesota Reformer in a statement on Wednesday that she thinks Rahman was “targeted.”
“There is nothing unlawful about standing in silence and this is a blatant abuse of power,” Van Brunt told the Reformer. “She was not disruptive or disrespectful. She was not holding a sign, making gestures, or wearing protest gear. She was simply standing in silence.”
Rahman is a Bangladeshi-American software engineer and a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury, according to a Feb. 23 press release from Omar’s office. In January, Rahman was forcibly removed from her car by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minneapolis, The Washington Post reportedon Wednesday.
Omar and Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib both notably shouted at Trump after he brought up illegal immigration during his Tuesday speech.
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