A guest of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D, Minn.) at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday was arrested for standing during the speech to Congress.
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Omar posted on X Wednesday that her guest—Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen with disabilities who had a physical altercation with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January—“stood up silently in the gallery during the president’s speech for a short period of time” and was “forcibly removed” from the House chamber and “ultimately charged with ‘Unlawful Conduct.’”
Unlawful conduct, particularly the disruption of Congress, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in prison or a fine of up to $500.
U.S. Capitol Police, in a statement, said that at around 10:07 p.m., a guest in the House gallery “started demonstrating.” Rahman was “told to sit down, but refused to obey our lawful orders.
“It is illegal to disrupt the Congress and demonstrate in the Congressional Buildings,” the statement said.
Photos of the incident show Rahman being escorted out of the chamber. Omar added that, based on reports, her guest was “aggressively handled until someone intervened to secure medical attention.” She said Rahman was then brought to George Washington University Hospital to receive treatment and later booked at Capitol Police headquarters.
Omar said the response to a “peaceful guest” was “heavy-handed” and said it “sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy.” Capitol Police, however, said in its statement that “all State of the Union tickets clearly explain that demonstrating is prohibited.”
Rahman, 43, was released early Wednesday morning. Speaking to Democracy Now!, she said that the sergeant-at-arms told her that she was arrested for “standing up silently,” and she claimed that officers only stopped pulling on her “when their own sergeant intervened” in a back stairwell.
“I was arrested so physically that two other attendees upstairs attempted to intervene in officers pulling on my shoulders after I told them I have a torn rotator cuff tendon and multiple cartilage tears in both of my shoulders,” Rahman added.
Disruptions during Presidents’ State of the Union speeches aren’t new. Many Democrats protested in various ways while Trump spoke, including Rep. Al Green of Texas, who was similarly escorted out of the House chamber.
Omar herself was heard shouting “liar,” when the President railed against alleged corruption in the Somali migrant community in Minnesota. And when Trump spoke about illegal immigration, Omar yelled, “You’ve killed Americans!” to which the President responded: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
The Minnesota lawmaker told CNN Wednesday she did not regret screaming at Trump during his speech. She also said that Rahman, since her arrest, was “back and safe.”
Who is Aliya Rahman?
Rahman, a Bangladeshi-American software engineer, is a resident of Minneapolis with autism and a traumatic brain injury. Rahman made headlines in January this year after a video of federal agents forcibly removing her from her car amid an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis went viral. In the video, Rahman, who was on her way to a medical appointment on Jan. 13, was dragged out of the car and carried by federal agents by her limbs, while she screamed that she was disabled.
Rahman was later taken to ICE’s detention center at the Whipple Federal Building, and in a congressional testimony earlier this month, she decried the “severe” impact on her physical, mental and emotional health, detailing how federal immigration agents treated detainees and how she had been allegedly mistreated and denied medical care while in detention.
The Department of Homeland Security described Rahman as an “agitator” who “ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene” and was thus “arrested for obstruction.”
Speaking to MS NOW before Trump’s State of the Union, Rahman said, “I have spent the last month learning the names of the tendons in my shoulder—because both of my shoulders are torn, cartilage and tendon, right—but what I haven’t learned is the names of the people who did this to me.”
“But honestly, the thing that I’m far more concerned about than myself is that this is an ongoing fear and threat for people around this country,” Rahman added. “What happened to me is absolutely not new in the history of this country, and we have not seen accountability that gives me any reason to believe this won’t be done to somebody else.”
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