Ilhan Omar's Republican Challenger John Nagel Calls for a Gang Task Force and Says She Could Easily Clear Up Questions About Her Immigration Status
In a Fox News Digital interview, the retired state trooper running in Minnesota's 5th District points to recent gang shootings and a foiled Mall of America plot. He says Omar deserves due process. Omar is under federal investigation and has not been reported charged.
A month after federal agents raided Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home, her Republican opponent is making public safety and her immigration case the center of his closing pitch, Fox News reports.
Who he is. John Nagel is a retired Minnesota state trooper with 30 years on the force, running as the underdog in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. He told Fox News Digital: "We have two problems in Minnesota. We have a terrorist problem... and then we have a Somali gang problem." He said he wants a task force to deal with gang violence and added that the area also has "Asian gangs, Black gangs, Latino gangs."
The events he cites. Fox lists a foiled plot at the Mall of America on Oct. 7, in which the FBI arrested 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, a U.S. citizen born to Somali parents who is accused of pledging allegiance to al-Shabaab. It also lists a shooting in the parking lot of Eden Prairie High School at homecoming that injured two, and a later gas station shooting in Bloomington in which more than 100 rounds were fired. Local officials blamed Somali gangs for both shootings. Nagel said the gangs mainly trade in guns and know how to convert pistols to fire like machine guns. He also said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher was wrongly called a racist a year ago for raising the issue.
On Omar. Fox says Omar is under criminal investigation for possibly falsifying immigration paperwork. Nagel said she "deserves due process" and the same investigation as anyone else, but that if she is innocent it would be "very simple" to produce paperwork or a DNA sample. He also said she thinks of herself as Somali first and that "we are nothing more than a piggy bank for her."
Note for readers: these are the views of a political opponent, and we have no response from Omar in the piece. We did not see a charge against her reported. Nagel's statements about gangs and Omar's loyalties are his claims, and his characterization of Omar's identity and motives is not something the article backs up with evidence. The suspects named in the incidents are presumed innocent until convicted.