Rep. Ilhan Omar has submitted a package of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would repeal the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, strip the president's ability to use military force against designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and sever the U.S.-Israel military alliance, all in one legislative push. Her office declined to explain why.
The Minnesota Democrat's amendments, first reported by the Daily Signal, target three distinct pillars of American national security law. Amendment #1152 would repeal the Alien Enemies Act outright. Amendment #1273 would declare that designating a group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization "does not constitute an authorization for the use of military force." Amendment #1177 would repeal the War Reserve Stockpile Authority for Israel, the pre-positioned weapons depot that has served as a cornerstone of the U.S.-Israel defense relationship since the 1990s.
Omar's office did not respond to the Daily Signal's request for comment and offered no public rationale for the amendments.
The Alien Enemies Act, passed in 1798, grants the president authority to apprehend, restrain, and deport noncitizens from hostile nations without standard immigration hearings. Congress delegated this power to the executive branch to prevent foreign espionage and sabotage. It is one of the oldest national security statutes on the books.
President Trump invoked the law during his second term to expedite the deportation of Venezuelan nationals he identified as members of the Tren de Aragua drug cartel. Hundreds of deportations were completed under the authority. The ACLU Justice Association filed lawsuits challenging the invocations.
Matt O'Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation of American Immigration Reform and a former immigration judge, told the Daily Signal that Omar's amendment would reach far beyond the Venezuela deportations. It would also block the president from acting when a nation designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, or its agents, threatens or carries out hostilities against the United States.
"It would also apply any time the president issues a formal proclamation declaring that a nation designated a state sponsor of terrorism, or its agents, are threatening or perpetrating hostilities against, or incursions into, the U.S. as specified in the AEA."
O'Brien added that repealing the law would not create a legal gap so much as eliminate a tool of speed. Most individuals removed under the AEA were also removable on other grounds. But the act enables expedited removal of noncitizens hostile to U.S. national security, and speed, in a security crisis, is the point.
"Moreover, the AEA does not create any unique bases for removal. Rather, in certain limited circumstances, it enables expedited removal of aliens who are hostile to the national security interests of the United States."
That Omar would push to strip the president of wartime deportation powers at a moment when drug cartels are killing hundreds of people a month and the administration is actively using the law tells you everything about the priority set.
Amendment #1273 targets the legal architecture connecting Foreign Terrorist Organization designations to military action. Omar's own press release describes it as expressing "the sense of Congress that designation of a foreign terrorist organization does not constitute an authorization for the use of military force." "Sense of Congress" resolutions do not carry the force of law, but they send a political signal, and in this case, the signal is unmistakable.
There are more than 70 congressionally designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The list includes Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, and, since 2025, the Sinaloa Cartel. These are not abstract policy categories. ISIS fighters killed 129 people and injured 352 in the November 2015 Paris attacks. Hamas militants invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and over 1,000 Israeli citizens were kidnapped, murdered, and raped. The Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for nearly 600 homicides in June 2025 alone.
During Trump's second term, the Pentagon directed military forces to carry out operations targeting FTO groups and officials abroad. U.S. strikes hit drug smuggling boats from Latin America, killing at least 27 suspected smugglers. The military also conducted retaliatory strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen after they targeted U.S. service members in Syria.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas introduced H.R. 885 in February to formally designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations through legislation. That bill has not yet reached the floor for a vote.
Omar's amendment would not dissolve these designations. But it would erect a wall between designation and action, telling the world that even when Congress itself labels an organization as terrorist, the military cannot respond without a separate authorization. In practice, it would slow the very operations the administration has used to intercept cartel shipments and strike terrorist leadership.
Amendment #1177 takes aim at the War Reserve Stockpile Authority for Israel, a program established in the 1990s that allows the United States to pre-position weapons and equipment in Israeli depots. The Washington Institute has described WRSA-I as a pre-positioned "insurance policy." Israel can withdraw weapons from U.S.-owned depots in emergencies. A similar arrangement exists with South Korea.
The United States has spent around 0.38 percent of its annual defense budget on Israel since the October 7 attack, per Council on Foreign Relations figures cited in the Daily Signal's reporting. Israeli Defense Forces have killed between 8,500 and 14,000 Hamas militants in the conflict that followed.
Omar's effort to dismantle this stockpile comes against a backdrop of her broader record on Israel. She was among 53 House Democrats who voted against a measure to designate Iran as a state sponsor of terror. Iran is widely believed to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi rebels, the very groups that the FTO list was designed to confront.
Hamas's own 1988 founding documents declare: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it." Omar has not publicly addressed how repealing the weapons stockpile authority squares with the threat environment Israel faces from organizations whose stated goal is annihilation.
O'Brien framed Omar's amendments as part of a deliberate strategy, not a one-off policy disagreement. He told the Daily Signal that Omar "is clearly seeking to curtail any legal authorities that permit the president to control the borders and prohibit foreign national security and public safety threats from entering the United States."
That assessment gains weight when you look at the full scope of Omar's recent legislative activity. She stood alone among Democrats in voting against Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions, a position that isolated her even within her own caucus. Her financial disclosures have drawn scrutiny as well, revised filings wiped out millions in reported assets without public explanation, and she has brushed off questions about fraud investigations tied to a reported $29 million net-worth plunge.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Omar submitted her NDAA amendments while the administration is actively using the Alien Enemies Act to remove cartel-linked illegal immigrants, while the military is conducting strikes against FTO targets, and while Israel is fighting a war against Iranian-backed terrorist organizations. Every one of her amendments would weaken the American response to those threats.
The Daily Signal noted a discrepancy between the article's reference to "eight amendments" and Omar's own press release, which references nine. Her office has not clarified the difference. The current status of Amendments #1273, #1152, and #1177 in the NDAA process remains unclear.
What is clear is the direction. Repeal the deportation law. Block military force against terrorists. Dismantle the weapons stockpile that backs America's closest Middle East ally. And do it all without offering a single word of public explanation.
Voters in Minnesota's Fifth District may want to ask their representative a simple question: whose side are these amendments on?
