Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be defunded yesterday, saying it was 'un-American' to detain immigrants for wanting to come to the United States.

The Democratic Congresswoman tweeted following a report that Sherburne County jail in her home state of Minnestota had offered 300 extra beds to ICE so that it could house more detainees.

The proposal - following the agency's call for extra space in the state - would take the total number of beds the jail provides to 500.

After ICE requested extra space to detain more immigrants in her home state of Minnesota, Rep. Omar responded on Twitter (pictured), arguing it is wrong to criminalize people for wanting to come to the U.S.

Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said it is 'un-American' for ICE to detain suspected illegal immigrants

'It's un-American to criminalize immigrants for wanting to come to this country for a better life. This is why ICE to be defunded,' she tweeted.

According to MPR News, it is not yet clear whether ICE will accept the jail's offer.

The website reported that three quarters of ICE detainees last year had previous convictions. But the agency also arrests other illegal immigrants with no criminal background.

Omar and other Democratic lawmakers have long called for the abolition of the agency, which came under fire last year for separating nearly 3,000 minors from their parents as they tried to enter the U.S and placing them in detention centers under the Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' policy.

Rep. Omar's election to the House in 2018 saw her become the first Somali-American, the first naturalized citizen from Africa, the first non-white woman from Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim women (along with Rashida Tlaib of Michigan) to serve in Congress

'ICE is militarized, brutal, and unaccountable. Immigration policy should be based in compassion. ICE is not the solution, we need to abolish ICE,' Rep. Omar tweeted on 2 July last year.

Last month she reiterated her call to scrap the agency in a speech to liberal activists, saying: 'We need to abolish ICE and end all inhumane deportation and detention programs.

'We need to fight back against the criminalization of immigrants and those crossing the border.

'We need to create a fair and accessible path to legal status and citizenship for all undocumented people in the United States.'

Rep. Omar's latest tweet comes days after acting ICE director Mark Morgan branded calls to defund the agency as 'absolutely irresponsible'.

Morgan, who joined ICE in May after heading up the US Border Patrol appeared on Fox News on Wednesday night and blasted Congress for 'refusing' to do what is needed to address the crisis at the Mexico border.

He took aim at legislators who would like to see ICE abolished, specifically mentioning freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Rep. Omar and other Democrats have long called criticized ICE, which came under fire last year for separating nearly 3,000 minors from their parents last year

Acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Mark Morgan called Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats who want to abolish the agency 'absolutely irresponsible' during an interview on Fox News Wednesday evening

Self-identified democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez has said that shutting down ICE is 'one of the more urgent moral issues and crises that we have in America right now.'

'If you talk about abolishing ICE, it is absolutely irresponsible,' Morgan told host Laura Ingraham.

'Last year alone 34,000 criminal arrests, 5,000 gang members arrested. Thousands of cases of child smuggling exploitation, human trafficking.

'I would like to talk to that young congresswoman and have her tell me what is going to happen if ICE is abolished,' he said of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.

Earlier this year, it emerged two high-ranking ICE special agents were under review by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sharing and liking anti-immigrant posts on social media about Rep. Omar.

Leslie Derewonko, a Homeland Security Investigations senior agent, reportedly shared a post which suggested the Muslim-American lawmaker was a terrorist threat.

That post was then 'liked' by Jerry Templet, the second-in-command of Homeland Security Investigations in San Francisco, according to Buzzfeed News.

On the LinkedIn post Derewonko is said to have shared a video that described the first-term Minnesota congresswoman as a 'trojan horse'.

A LinkedIn account under the name Leslie Derewonko - a high-ranking ICE official shared this post about Rep. Omar

It said Omar, who spent part of her youth in a Kenyan refugee camp after fleeing war-torn Somalia, came to the US because of a 'refugee outbreak' under former president Barack Obama.

The clip then claims to show Omar admitting to taking 'terrorism classes.'

Derewonko reportedly commented: 'And this is what represents America?' before the post was liked by Templet.