Rep. Ilhan Omar Announces Four Guests for State of the Union Address
WASHINGTON – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) will take Aliya Rahman, Mary Granlund, Mubashir Hussen, and Gerardo Orozco Guzman as her guests to the State of the Union Address. The stories of these four Minnesotans reflect how ICE’s reckless actions in Minnesota through “Operation Metro Surge” have devastated Minnesotans’ safety and economic security.
Aliya Rahman is a Bangladeshi-American software engineer, a resident of South Minneapolis, and a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury. On January 13, Rahman was driving to a doctor’s appointment when her window was smashed in by DHS agents, she was forcibly removed from her vehicle, and she was violently detained by federal agents who had caused a traffic jam despite her repeated statements that she was disabled. She was taken to Whipple Detention Center where she witnessed inhumane cruelty against detainees from federal immigration agents. During her detention, Rahman experienced severe medical neglect and violence at the hands of ICE agents, requiring hospitalization for assault at Hennepin County Medical Center upon her release. Rahman is now calling for ICE to face legal accountability for their aggression against civilians.
Mary Granlund is the Chair of the Columbia Heights School Board. Since the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old student at Columbia Heights schools, Granlund, Superintendent Zena Stenvik, and a group of Columbia Heights principals, teachers, interpreters, social workers, and community members have stepped up to protect their community. They’re conducting daily patrols, working to connect detained children and families with legal assistance, and coordinating food deliveries for families too scared to leave their homes. Despite Tom Homan’s announcement in early February that the surge is coming to an end, communities have not seen 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. Granlund, educators, social workers, and community members are doing invaluable work to keep Columbia Heights’ students and families informed, fed, and protected.
Mubashir Hussen is a 20-year-old U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident. On December 8, 2025, a masked federal immigration officer stopped Hussen while he was on his lunch break from work. The ICE agent detained Hussen, despite Hussen repeating “I’m a citizen” multiple times. The agent took Hussen to the Whipple Federal Building, where he was shackled and fingerprinted. Hussen was released after showing a photo of his passport card to an individual at the Whipple building.
On behalf of Mubashir Hussen and two other community members whose constitutional rights were violated by federal immigration officers, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Trump Administration to end ICE and CBP’s practice of suspicionless stops, warrantless arrests, and racial profiling of Minnesotans.
Gerardo Orozco Guzman is the son of Eustaquio Orozco Verdusco, a workers’ rights organizer who has been fighting wage theft and labor trafficking. Orozco Verdusco works with Minneapolis-based worker center Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha, which has been organizing against ICE’s detention of construction workers from job sites. He is also a member of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. On January 9, 2026, federal immigration agents detained Orozco Verdusco in Coon Rapids under Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge,” flew him to Camp East Montana in El Paso, TX, and recently moved him to New Mexico, where he is currently detained at Cibola County Correctional Center.
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