Ilhan Omar's father, Nur Omar Mohamed (Noor Siciid Elmi), was not just any refugee-he was a key figure, a colonel in the brutal, genocidal army of Somalian dictator Siad Barre.

After the regime collapsed, Ilhan didn't escape as one of the oppressed; she fled as a privileged member of the toppled regime illegally fleeing to the United States

Her father wasn't a refugee seeking freedom. He was part of the very machinery of oppression that devastated Somalia.