Rep. Ilhan Omar Represents Everything Wrong With America’s Immigration System

  John Daniel Davidson Visit on Twitter @johnddavidson

Immigration and border policy should first serve the interests of Americans, to the exclusion of all other peoples and nations.

There’s a clip going around of Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar talking to a group of Somalians about her allegiances and priorities as a U.S. congresswoman. What Omar says is instructive, not just about her general worldview but mostly (and more importantly) about how backward and destructive our immigration system is.

Omar is a woman of the left, but her speech over the weekend was pure blood-and-soil nationalism — for Somalia, not America.

She tells them she’s a Somalian first and a Muslim second. She doesn’t even mention the United States or her citizenship here. She promises to use her power and influence in Congress to protect her nation’s interests. (Again, that nation being Somalia, not America.)

Speaking in Somali, Omar tells the cheering crowd that her “top priority” is to expand Somalia’s territory. “As Somalis, one day we will go after our missing territories,” she says, referencing disputed regions in Kenya and Ethiopia.

She brags that the U.S. government “will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia. We Somalians must have the confidence in ourselves that we call the shots in the U.S.”

In light of Omar’s candidness, it’s fair to ask: Why is she allowed to serve in Congress? Why is she even allowed to remain in the United States? Omar is an immigrant and a U.S. citizen, but clearly she is not an American. She appears to have no allegiance to her adopted country — a country that took her in, sheltered and protected her, provided a safe haven from the chaos and violence of her homeland, and elevated her to a position of power and influence.