As anti-ICE riots continue to fester in Los Angeles, a Minnesota State House member admitted on Monday that she's an illegal immigrant. Speaking on the floor, Rep. Kaohly Vang Her (D) said that her father committed fraud on immigration documents and that she "is illegal in this country."
What exactly that means as far as the details go isn't completely clear, as she could be misleading for political effect, but if confirmed, she'd be in for a world of problems.
VANG HER: Because his mother had died, my father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother. And so I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegally here in this country.
Vang Her came to the United States as a refugee from Laos when she was four years old. According to her own words in the above video, her family committed immigration fraud to enter the country. If that's true, she is not eligible to hold elected office in Minnesota, which requires its state representatives to be legal U.S. citizens. So did Vang Her just unwittingly vacate her seat by the letter of the law? It sure seems like it.
Practically, what happens next is a bit more of a question. Vang Her is technically a U.S. citizen in so much as she went through the process and enjoys that status. So she's not actually "illegal in this country" in the sense that someone who crossed the border illegally six months ago is. By that, I mean that the federal government would have to go through an entire investigation and fight through a variety of steps to remove her citizenship in light of the admission of fraud.
So what's this really about? It's bait. Vang Her is betting that the Trump administration won't bother to pursue this, and that even if they do, the courts will protect her, given that she wasn't an active participant in committing immigration fraud as a four-year-old. She wants ICE agents to show up and arrest her so she can make a scene, with the assumption that she'd ultimately prevail. It's a play for attention. You can bet Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) would love to beat that drum as he continues to try to stand up his laughable attempt at a 2028 presidential campaign.
SEE: This Tim Walz Thing Is Starting to Get Weird
That puts the Trump administration in a tough spot. Do they try to enforce the law by going back decades to investigate if fraud led to Vang Her's naturalization as a citizen? And would any court even take the step of voiding her citizenship, even if that was proven? The other option is to just ignore this, though that wouldn't sit very well given how blatant she's being about publicizing this. We'll see where this goes.