Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar wiped away a tear on Wednesday as she issued a call to end President Donald Trump's travel ban, calling it an 'invisible wall' against Muslims.
'I came to this country because I believed in the promise of liberty, equality, and justice,' said Omar, whose parents fled violence in her native Somalia and migrated to the United States. 'Trump may not have gotten his border wall but he made an invisible wall keeping out people around the world based solely on their religion.'
Omar's emotional moment came when she joined other Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill in pushing a bill - the No Ban Act - that would repeal the president's travel ban.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar wiped away a tear on Wednesday as she issued a call to end President Donald Trump's travel ban
President Donald Trump's travel ban suspended refugees from entering the United States from seven countries - including Omar's birth place of Somalia
'When I ran for office I ran on the promise to end the president's hateful effort to ban a single religion from entering this country,' she said.
'I have said this before and I will say it again: I believe this ban will go down as a moral stain on this country's history,' Omar, one of the first Muslim American women in Congress, added.
Omar's plea to end the ban comes as she faces fire from Republicans over comments she made last month in which she described the September 11th terror attacks as 'some people did something.'
In a speech at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Omar noted 'CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.'
Several Republicans pounced on her words after footage from the event made it on to social media.
'First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as 'some people who did something.' Unbelievable,' said GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw in a tweet.
Omar's emotional moment came when she joined other Democratic lawmakers in pushing a bill - the No Ban Act - that would repeal the president's travel ban
Omar's plea to end the ban comes as she faces fire from Republicans over her description of the 9/11 terror attacks as 'some people did something'
'Ilhan Omar isn't just anti-Semitic – she's anti-American. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives to Islamic terrorists on 9/11, yet Omar diminishes it as: 'Some people did something.' Democrat leaders need to condemn her brazen display of disrespect,' wrote Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
The Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota pushed back against her critics, tweeting they were guilty of 'dangerous incitement, given the death threats I face.'
'This is dangerous incitement, given the death threats I face. I hope leaders of both parties will join me in condemning it. My love and commitment to our country and that of my colleagues should never be in question. We are ALL Americans!,' she wrote.
Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women in Congress, came under fire earlier this year for suggesting that supporters of Israel were urging lawmakers to have 'allegiance to a foreign country.'
It was at least the third time Omar has forced older, pro-Israel Democrats who run the House into awkward territory over U.S.-Israeli policy.
The first was her claim, later retracted, that moneyed Jews buy the support of U.S. lawmakers via a pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with a strategy that's 'all about the Benjamins baby.'
The Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress
The House ultimately passed a resolution condemning all hate language but Republicans criticized Democrats for not including Omar's name in it.
On Wednesday, Omar shared the story of how she and her family fled her homeland after the Somalian Civil War in 1991 and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States.
'I came to this country because I believed, I believed even as a child the promise of liberty, equality and justice,' she said.
'My birth country is now on the so-called list of countries that are banned from coming into the United States,' she added. 'So I think about the little Ilhans who, like me, would like to be able to experience the American dream. They will no longer be able to fulfill that promise.'
President Trump's travel ban lowered the number of refugees admitted into the United States to 50,000 and suspended refugee entry from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
The Democrats' bill would amend the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act to curtail broad language in present law that allows Trump to suspend the entry of specific groups into the United States.
It is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.
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