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Omar Demands Answers After ICE Agent Spotted Outside Town Hall

Published 11 August 2026

Rep. Ilhan Omar is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security after an undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations was discovered parked outside one of her town hall meetings in Richfield, Minnesota, on August 6. The incident, which occurred just days before the state's primary election, has prompted the Democratic congresswoman to raise concerns about potential intimidation and surveillance by federal immigration authorities.

According to a letter Omar sent to Michael McCarthy, the interim special agent in charge of the HSI field office in St. Paul, a Richfield police officer on duty for event security noticed a woman in a Ford Explorer monitoring the building where the town hall was taking place. The officer ran the vehicle's license plates and found they were registered to a different car. When approached, the woman initially identified herself as event security, a claim that was quickly refuted by Omar's actual security team. She then contacted her supervisor and admitted she was an HSI agent, part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and stated she was in the area for an undercover drug operation. She subsequently left the property.

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