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DFL U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke against President Donald Trump’s policies at a town hall Thursday at Washburn High School in southwest Minneapolis.

The town hall came shortly after Trump signed an 

executive order aimed at closing the Department of Education

 and returning authority over education to the states.

Omar spoke out against it, saying she thinks dismantling the Department of Education could bring back segregation in schools. But she says the decision can't be made without Congressional approval. 

could be hurt from Education Department cuts

“He knows he doesn’t have the votes for that, because this country does not want that to come back,” she said. “So he’s doing an executive order to sort of say, promise made, promise kept.”

Legal challenges to the executive order are likely.

Nick Mark came to the town hall because he thinks Democrats aren’t doing enough to push back against policies like this recent executive order. 

“They’re making it too easy for the administration to just kind of rip things up and go on their merry way,” Mark said. “I recognize that they don’t have the numbers to pass their own legislation, but they do have the numbers to gum up the works and make it harder for people, to destroy things.”

Omar also spoke out against the Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA is planning to cut more than 80,000 jobs. 

“Ninety percent of the VA’s workforce is dedicated to providing health care, and these cuts would worsen the already long waiting times and staffing shortages that makes it hard for our veterans to already access care,” Omar said. 

She says the cuts will also affect services like housing for veterans. The 

 says nearly 13 percent of the homeless adult population are veterans.

Omar also spoke out against Trump’s decision last weekend to ignore a federal judge's order to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador. 

Trump used the Alien Enemies Act, which Omar has tried to repeal since 2020. 

“We knew this was coming, which is why I introduced the Neighbors Not Enemies Act to repeal this outdated law because I knew the risk it poses in the hands of someone like Donald Trump,” Omar said. 

The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before in U.S. history — and all during congressionally declared wars.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Regina Medina

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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke against President Donald Trump’s policies at a town hall Thursday at Washburn High School in southwest Minneapolis.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks out against Trump’s policies in Minneapolis town hall

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