Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced legislation that would redirect over $100 billion in ICE and Border Patrol funding to communities she says were harmed by enforcement operations, a move conservatives are calling "un-American."

Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, unveiled the Make ICE Pay Act in a press release Thursday, framing the bill as a direct response to "Operation Metro Surge," an ICE enforcement operation in her home state. The bill would take nearly $140 billion in ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding allocated under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and funnel it toward what Omar's office described as "local recovery efforts." Fox News Digital reported that the bill's prospects are widely considered bleak.

The reaction from Republicans and conservative voices was swift and sharp. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana called the bill "un-American" in a post on X, writing that it "defunds law enforcement and gives their funding to the communities harboring criminal illegal aliens." Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted her own rebuke: "Defund ICE. Weaken the border. Then expect safer communities? That math isn't mathing."

Omar, for her part, cast the legislation in the language of community accountability. She posted on X that "ICE has been tearing through our nation, devastating our neighborhoods, our cities, and our businesses," and that her bill would "redirect ICE's $140 billion budget to the communities they've hurt the most."

Nearly $140 billion rerouted from enforcement to nonprofits and schools

The bill's mechanics, as described in Omar's press release, would channel the redirected funds toward economic relief distributed through states to nonprofits, small businesses, and other entities Omar's office says were impacted by immigration enforcement. The money would also cover support for schools, healthcare, psychological services, increased local-government expenses, investigations, and what the bill calls "memorialization efforts."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development would administer the program, with HUD's inspector general providing oversight. The program would expire three years after its creation. Omar did not name any co-sponsors, and Fox News Digital reached out to her office for comment but reported no response.

The bill's funding figures themselves raise questions. The article text describes the redirected amount as "over $100 billion" in one passage and "nearly $140 billion" in another. Omar's own post rounds to "$140 billion." The discrepancy is not explained, and no breakdown of the figures appears in the press release as reported.

Strip away the rhetoric and the bill does something straightforward: it takes money Congress allocated for immigration enforcement and hands it to entities that, in many cases, have actively resisted that enforcement. Sen. Banks put the point bluntly, the funding would go to "communities harboring criminal illegal aliens." Whether one agrees with that characterization or not, the legislative text as described does not restrict recipients based on their cooperation with federal immigration law.

Omar faces a federal investigation of her own

The timing of the bill adds another dimension. White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed to Fox News last week that DHS is looking into longstanding allegations involving Omar, specifically, claims that she married a man critics allege is her brother as part of an immigration scheme. Homan described it as an "ongoing criminal investigation."

Homan told Fox News he would not disclose details and declined to confirm whether the federal government has evidence Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud. But he was direct about ICE's involvement:

"I'm confirming that ICE is, yeah, look, I said months ago that there's something that's been reported and needs to be looked at."

Omar dismissed the allegations in a social media post in December, calling them "bigoted lies" and writing that Trump was obsessed with her. She has not addressed the specifics of the investigation publicly beyond that general denial.

The DHS investigation into Omar's background is not the only scrutiny she faces. A watchdog group has separately pushed the House Ethics Committee to obtain Omar's financial records after the panel voted to drop a prior probe. And Senate testimony has linked Omar's name to broader allegations of Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, a state that has already seen convictions in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case.

Conservatives line up to condemn the bill

The conservative response went beyond elected officials. LibsofTikTok, a prominent conservative influencer account on X, called Omar's bill "the definition of America last" and added two words: "Denaturalize and deport."

John Nagel, the Republican running against Omar in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District this November, was blunter still. He posted on X that "her entire existence is on crippling the United States," calling her "anti-police and pro communism."

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in a Fox News video segment, responded to President Trump's signing of a $70 billion bill to fund ICE and CBP through 2029 by calling out Democrats for attempting to defund border protection. Mullin highlighted sanctuary cities and what he described as a growing number of arrested illegal immigrants facing felony charges, emphasizing the Trump administration's zero-tolerance approach toward those who harbor criminals or assault law enforcement.

Omar attended a news conference with members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on January 13, 2026, at the Capitol Visitor Center, focused on DHS funding and accountability. Three days later, on January 16, she appeared at a field hearing at the Minnesota Senate Building in St. Paul, a hearing titled "Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump's Deadly Assault on Minnesota," featuring local citizens and politicians discussing Operation Metro Surge.

The framing of that hearing title, accusing the Trump administration of a "deadly assault" on an American state, captures the worldview behind the Make ICE Pay Act. In Omar's telling, federal immigration enforcement is not law enforcement at all. It is an attack on communities. The bill treats ICE funding the way a plaintiff's lawyer treats a defendant's assets: as something to be seized and redistributed to the aggrieved.

A lawmaker under investigation wants to defund the investigators

Omar's pattern of controversy extends well beyond this bill. The marriage fraud allegations, the ethics complaints, the fraud connections in her home state, none of these have produced a conviction or a formal finding against her. But they form a backdrop that makes the Make ICE Pay Act land differently than it might from another member of Congress.

A sitting member of Congress who is herself the subject of an ongoing ICE criminal investigation introduced a bill to strip that same agency of nearly $140 billion in funding. Omar's office has not explained how the bill would affect any investigations ICE is currently conducting, including, presumably, the one involving her.

Fox News Digital noted that the bill's future appears bleak, and no co-sponsors have been identified. In a Congress that just passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to fund immigration enforcement, a proposal to gut that funding and redirect it to nonprofits and "memorialization efforts" is not going anywhere. But the bill was never meant to pass. It was meant to send a message.

The message landed. Just not the way Omar intended.

When a lawmaker facing a federal immigration investigation introduces a bill to defund the agency investigating her, voters don't need a press release to understand the incentives at work.