(FamilyConservationPAC.com)—Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sworn in its first non-citizen police officer, according to reports.

According to the department, Lesly Vera, a Somalian native, was sworn in on Thursday as the Minnesota Police Department’s first non-citizen officer.

Vera was spotted taking the oath of office and receiving her badge during the swearing-in event, wearing a hijab over her head.

When Vera was four years old, her parents moved from their port of arrival in Mexico to Minneapolis. Though not a citizen of the United States, she is an authorized worker and legal resident alien.

Giving a non-citizen police authority is something that Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara defended.

“There may be people who question it, but that’s completely ridiculous. There’s, like I mentioned, there is a history in this country of people immediately on arrival to the country, enlisting in the military and serving,” O’Hara told KSTP-TV.

“Somebody like [Officer Vera], who has been here essentially her entire life, absolutely is entitled to protect her community in the same way that anyone else here has, and we’re honored to have her.”

“Our 23 new officers include the first Somali-American woman to join the department and the first permanent resident. A police service that looks like our residents is better able to serve our residents, and I couldn’t be more proud of the department we’re building under Chief O’Hara,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said Friday on Facebook.

“It’s moving. It’s emotional. I mean, I talked about the hope in the room, from a personal standpoint as mayor of the city, it gives me a lot of hope. Our police department is looking more and more like the communities that we are charged with protecting and serving,” Frey added in a KTSP interview.

Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali immigrant community in the country. Somalis have been migrating to Minneapolis since the 1990s.

The city’s generous welfare programs and opportunity for living as foreign residents among their fellow Somalis drew in large numbers of Somalis.

However, a recent massive fraud case involving millions of stolen Medicaid funding linked to a fictitious charity called Feeding Our Future, which was run by prominent Somali residents in the area, completely rocked the community.

When the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) passed new regulations last year allowing state law enforcement agencies to promote non-citizens to the rank of police officer, Vera’s path was cleared.

To receive a pistol and badge, an applicant must no longer meet the citizenship criteria; instead, they must merely be a legal resident and authorized to work in the United States.

It is not just Minnesota attempting to permit non-citizens to hold law enforcement positions. Illinois, Colorado, and California also draft laws to grant police authority to non-citizens.

When an Australian lady was shot and killed by Somali-born police officer Mohamed Noor in 2017 while responding to a 911 call, Minneapolis was rocked.

Officer Noor was ultimately found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter; however, the verdict was later overturned by the state Supreme Court. Noor ultimately received a 57-month sentence for the woman’s murder.

The city was heavily criticized on social media for the decision. The announcement that a non-citizen has been granted the authority to detain, arrest, and imprison individuals alarmed Elon Musk, the CEO of X.

Musk compared the current state of affairs to the collapse of the Roman Empire, further stating that “the Roman Army also increasingly relied on non-citizens.”

Should U.S.–non-citizens be allowed to enforce laws on U.S. citizens?

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