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Capitol Police brutalized Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minnesota) guest to the State of the Union address, Aliya Rahman, so badly that she needed to seek care at the hospital afterward — all because Rahman stood up in protest during President Donald Trump’s speech.
As Trump made heinous remarks about Somalis on Tuesday night, Rahman silently stood up in protest, she told Democracy Now! in an interview. The House’s top law enforcement officer told Rahman that she was arrested for standing up.
“No buttons, no facial expressions, no gestures, no signs. Not one sound. Standing up. There are only two things you can do at the State of the Union, and they are sit down and stand up,” she said. “All kinds of people were standing up all night. Me too — I stood up — at the moment that I heard this man say some of the most racist things I have heard come out of any leader’s mouth about the people of my city.”
Capitol Police confronted her to remove her from the chamber, specifically pulling on her shoulders after she told them she has injuries in both of her shoulders. Officers only let up on their violence after one of their sergeants intervened in the back stairwell, she said.
Rahman, who has a disability, required care at the hospital due to the arrest, and was booked at the Capitol Police headquarters afterward.
Omar has called for a “full explanation” of Rahman’s violent arrest. “The heavy-handed response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy,” Omar said.
Rahman was brutally arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last month. Officers shattered her car window, dragged her out, detained her, and denied her medical care while in custody. Rahman, who suffered from a traumatic brain injury in 2024 that has barred her from working, was on her way to a medical appointment and got caught in a traffic jam due to ICE vehicles.
That arrest, video of which went viral, ripped a tendon and ripped cartilage in one shoulder, and caused two cartilage rips in the other shoulder that Rahman’s doctor described as “ragged pieces of tissue hanging in the joint” that may require surgery. She now cannot raise her arms the same way as a result of the injuries.
“I’ve spent the last month learning the names of the tendons in my shoulder, because both of my shoulders are torn — cartilage and tendons. But what I haven’t learned is the names of the people who did this to me,” Rahman said in an interview with MS NOW this week.
Rahman testified to Congress about her arrest earlier this month.“The impacts of DHS detention on my physical, mental and financial wellbeing and safety have been very severe,” she said during her testimony. “Our nation lacks rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement can do to another human being, and I am not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone.”
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