Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has invited four Minnesota residents as guests to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.
Aliya Rahman, Mary Granlund, Mubashir Hussen, and Gerardo Orozco Guzman will accompany her to Trump’s address Tuesday evening, where the president is expected to tout the success of his nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.
Rahman, a Bangladeshi-American software engineer and resident of South Minneapolis, was “violently detained” on Jan. 13, according to Omar. Rahman was described by the congresswoman's office as “a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury.” She was driving to a doctor’s appointment when her window was smashed in by DHS agents and forcibly removed from her vehicle, the congresswoman alleged.
Hussen, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was walking in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood when he was approached by several masked federal immigration officers on Dec. 9, 2025. The congresswoman claimed ICE agents refused to check Hussen’s identification before detaining him, even though he stated he was an American citizen. The agents then took Hussen to the Whipple Federal Building, where he was placed in handcuffs and fingerprinted, according to Omar. He was later released after showing a photo of his passport card.
Orozco Guzman, a workers’ rights organizer, was detained by federal agents on Jan. 9. Orozco Verdusco works with a Minneapolis-based worker center that had been organizing against ICE’s detention of construction workers from job sites. After he was detained, he was flown to El Paso, Texas, and then later moved to New Mexico. He is currently detained at Cibola County Correctional Center, according to Omar’s office.
Granlund, Chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, stepped up to conduct daily patrols in neighborhoods in the wake of the federal surge in Minnesota. Granlund also worked to connect detained children and families with legal assistance, Omar said. Her activism came in response to the alleged detainment of a 5-year-old boy whose advocates claimed was used as bait by federal agents to capture his father. DHS, however, said it stayed with the minor to ensure his safety after his father ran away to evade arrest. Granlund also coordinated food deliveries for families too scared to leave their homes, Omar said.
The federal operation in Omar’s home state garnered national attention after two residents were shot and killed by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge. Investigations into their deaths remain ongoing.
In early February, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced the operation would be coming to an end. Despite this, according to Omar's office, there hasn’t been a decrease in ICE activities.
“The school district estimates that nearly 25% of its 800 students are learning remotely as they are too afraid to attend classes in person,” Omar said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has defended its federal presence, saying it focuses on targeting the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens in order to keep communities safe.