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By Billal Rahman, Gabe Whisnant, and Sonam Sheth
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A Minnesota state lawmaker revealed on Monday that she came to the United States "illegally."
Democratic state Rep. Kaohly Vang Her made the announcement during a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in the Minnesota state legislature.
She later clarified after her floor speech that she and her parents are U.S. citizens.
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The Democratic lawmaker told Newsweek her parents took their citizenship test and that she became a citizen as a minor when she was in middle school.
"It's incredibly disheartening that my floor speech—where I shared my family's deeply personal immigration story—was twisted into anti-immigrant clickbait. Let me be absolutely clear: My parents are citizens, and so am I," she said.
The Context
Her's speech comes as the country is reeling from the federal government's crackdown on demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles, California, that have targeted neighborhoods with higher immigrant populations that are home to labor-intensive industries.
The clashes between law enforcement and protesters entered their third day on Monday as Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass warned that the city was becoming a "tinderbox."
Police also released tear gas and pepper spray against protesters who gathered at detention centers and President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to clamp down on the demonstrations. The Pentagon has also mobilized approximately 700 Marines in response to the protests.
What To Know
"I am illegal in this country," Her said in her speech as the chamber was debating House File 1, a proposal that would ban MinnesotaCare coverage for adult undocumented people in the U.S. MinnesotaCare provides healthcare to low-income Minnesotans.
"My family broke the law to come here. I never knew that. I just learned that," she said. "My family was just smarter in how we illegally came here."
Her said she recently learned that her family had not been eligible to enter the U.S. but that her parents found a way to do so by altering their immigration paperwork.
"The only people who [could] come to the U.S. were if you were the direct military, you worked for the CIA, or you worked for [the United States Agency For International Development], which is why it's so personal to me that USAID is getting unfunded," Her said.
"But we did not do either one of those," she added. "My parents' Christian organization did not count."
"And so what my father did was, one of our uncles worked for USAID, and because his mother had died, my father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother," the Democratic lawmaker said. "And so I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country."
...
Her's online biography says that she was born in Laos and came to the U.S. as a refugee when she was 4 years old. She said Monday that her family left Laos after the Vietnam War.
"When we were fleeing this situation, never one time did my family say, 'Let's look at which state has the greatest welfare and which state has the greatest benefits because that's the state we're going to go to,'" Her said on the Minnesota House floor on Monday.
"Nobody leaves their country unless they have to leave that country," she added.
Her urged her Republican colleagues to consider her background when voting on whether to remove MinnesotaCare coverage for undocumented adults in the state.
"I never knew that," she said, referring to the circumstances of her family's arrival in the U.S. "I just learned that now. So, when you're thinking about voting no on this bill, you're voting no against someone like me who paid more into this country than it has ever given to me, that the blood of my grandfather, who died for democracy, that he never received benefits being in this country, and yet he paid taxes his entire life into it."
What People Are Saying
Minnesota state Rep. Kaohly Vang Her told Newsweek in an email: "My family came to the United States in 1976. We came legally as refugees of the Vietnam War, where my grandfather was a Colonel, fighting with the CIA, in the Secret War. I have been a citizen for almost four decades. Regardless of how MAGA extremists see me in their eyes, I am legal, and I am a citizen. My family has lived the American Dream. My parents worked honorable blue-collar jobs and built a life for my siblings and me. We completed our education, secured gainful employment, paid our taxes, gave back to our communities, and served in the military and elected office for the very country that gave us a new start.
"All refugees and immigrants, documented or not, have the right to seek a better life, to have safety for their family, and to fulfill their greatest potential—like all immigrants who came before them.
"It has not been lost on me that when my status was not in question, I was a model citizen who has been held up as the example for all other immigrants and refugees to aspire to. The second my status came into question, the vile comments on my worthiness came out, and those comments are telling. My status would not change all of the adversities I have overcome, the accomplishments I have achieved, and the contributions I have made."
Dustin Grage, a columnist at the conservative media outlet Townhall, reacted to Her's comments, writing on X: "Now that's bold."
Grage also tagged ICE in his X post.
Update 6/9/25 8:55 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
Update 6/10/25 3:40 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a comment from state Rep. Kaohly Vang Her.
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