On Thursday, the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota swore in its first-ever police officer who is not an American citizen.

As reported by Breitbart, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) announced that it had sworn in Lesly Vera, a Somalian immigrant who wore a hijab during the ceremony. She came to America with her parents when she was four, having first traveled to Mexico before the United States. Although she is technically considered a legal resident alien and has authorization to work in the U.S., she is not a citizen.

In a statement, MPD Chief Brian O’Hara defended the decision to add illegals and other non-citizens to the department’s ranks.

“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,” said O’Hara, without citing any evidence. “Somebody like her, 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.”

In a statement on Friday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D-Minn.) also defended the controversial decision.

“Our 23 new officers include the first Somali-American woman to join the department and the first permanent resident,” said Frey, who gained national infamy four years earlier for letting far-left rioters burn down his city in the George Floyd race riots. “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.”

Non-citizens like Vera have been allowed to join the MPD due to the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) adopting new rules last year allowing law enforcement agencies in the state to allow non-citizens into their ranks. The only requirement to join now is being a legal resident and being authorized to work in the United States.

Minneapolis has the largest Somali community in the country, many of whom are illegal or otherwise non-citizens. Somalis have been consistently moving to Minnesota in particular since the 1990s, primarily due to the large welfare programs in cities like Minneapolis; however, in recent years, there has been a growing fraud scandal involving tens of millions of Medicaid funding stolen through a fraudulent charity called Feeding Our Future, which is run by Somali illegals in the area.

The decision received widespread blowback online, with X owner Elon Musk opining that letting illegals serve as police officers was similar to the Roman Empire before its fall, since “the Roman Army also increasingly relied on non-citizens.”