Omar Claims Her SOTU Guest Was ‘Forcibly Removed’ from Gallery
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) claims her guest at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday was “forcibly removed” from the gallery.
“My guest, Aliya Rahman, stood silently in the gallery during the president’s speech for a short period, during which other guests were also standing,” Omar said. wrote in a post on social media. “For this, she was forcibly removed, despite police warnings about her injured shoulders, and she was eventually charged with “illegal driving.” »
The Democratic congresswoman later said she wanted answers about the incident.
“Reports indicate she was handled aggressively until someone intervened to get medical attention. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment and then booked into the United States Capitol Police Headquarters,” Omar said on social media. “The brutal response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy. I call for a full explanation of why this arrest took place.”
In January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents allegedly dragged Rahman, a U.S. citizen, from her car in Minneapolis after she encountered a group of agents and protesters at an intersection, the Associated Press (AP) reported on January 15.
A report broadcast by Fox9 shows Rahman inside his vehicle as police and protesters stand nearby. She appears to have driven her vehicle forward several times while officers stood by. A few moments later, the police took her out of her car.
Although Rahman claimed she was on her way to a medical appointment, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused her of being an agitator who “ignored multiple orders from an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene.”
In a social media post on February 6, ICE said“As our video shows, Aliya Rahman clearly had enough space to move herself and her vehicle. The officers even moved away from her vehicle, thinking she was going to leave the scene. Instead, she stayed put, continued to obstruct our officers, and found out the hard way.”
According to the New America website, Rahman worked with the group’s “Open Technology Institute” on body-worn camera policy and workforce development around community fiber expansion.
“Aliya was previously a program director at Code for Progress, where she led the recruitment, residency training, and placement of community organizers of color into full-time developer positions,” the site reads. “She is also the former field director of Equality Ohio, where she built a statewide field program aimed at bridging gaps between racial justice organizers, LGBT rights groups, and labor unions.”
New America’s active funding comes from, among other sources, the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, according to its website.
