What criminal justice reform measures did Ilhan Omar sponsor or co-sponsor in 2025?
Executive summary
In 2025 Rep. Ilhan Omar sponsored a focused package of criminal-justice bills aimed at federalizing independent investigations of police use of force and creating explicit federal penalties for law enforcement violence against demonstrators, led publicly by the National Police Misuse of Force Investigation Board Act (H.R.3652) and a “Protect Our Protesters” measure reintroduced in late May 2025 [1] [2] [3]. The bills assert tools to make investigatory findings admissible and to condition federal funding on department compliance, but they attracted relatively few co-sponsors and sit amid partisan disagreement over the direction of protest- and policing-related legislation [2] [3].
1. The National Police Misuse of Force Investigation Board Act: what it does and where it stands
The centerpiece Omar officially sponsored in 2025 is H.R.3652, the National Police Misuse of Force Investigation Board Act of 2025, introduced May 29, 2025, which would create a federal agency tasked with investigating all deaths in police custody, officer-involved shootings, and uses of force that produce serious bodily injury and would make the Board’s findings admissible in court while enabling cuts in federal law‑enforcement funding for departments that fail to implement the Board’s recommendations [1] [2].
2. Protect Our Protesters and criminalizing police violence at demonstrations
Omar reintroduced and promoted legislation described as the Protect Our Protesters Act or “Bill to Criminalize Police Violence Against Protesters,” which would impose federal penalties on officers who use force against demonstrators exercising First Amendment rights; the administration of these proposals was reiterated in her May–June 2025 press materials and public comments emphasizing the need to protect protesters and journalists from militarized responses [4] [5] [3].
3. The broader package and related measures Omar attached to the accountability theme
Beyond the two headline bills, Omar’s 2025 package included a global police‑brutality resolution and other accountability provisions framed as systemic remedies to prevent future violence, reflecting bills and press releases she had introduced in prior congressional sessions and reintroduced in 2025 to press for structural change to policing oversight [2] [5] [6].
4. Co-sponsorship, committee referral and political reception
Congressional records show H.R.3652 listed five cosponsors at introduction and was referred to the House Judiciary and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees, indicating formal legislative placement but modest early co-sponsorship support; reporting noted the protesters‑protection bill had only a handful of co-sponsors compared with other, more punitive protest-related bills filed this session [1] [3]. Omar’s office argued the measures are necessary to hold police accountable and leverage federal funding to enforce reforms, while critics and some lawmakers have favored bills that increase penalties for protesters or frame protest restrictions differently, creating a crowded and partisan legislative field [2] [3].
5. What this does — and doesn’t — show about Omar’s 2025 criminal-justice priorities
The record from her office and congressional filings in 2025 shows Omar focused legislative energy on police accountability mechanisms that federalize independent investigation and protect demonstrators’ rights rather than on sentencing reform or other criminal-justice domains in that year’s public materials; available sources document the introduction and reintroduction of the Board and protest‑protection bills but do not provide a comprehensive list of every criminal-justice co‑sponsorship she may have signed onto elsewhere in 2025 [2] [1] [4].
6. Political context and the limits of the available reporting
Coverage and Omar’s statements make clear an explicit progressive agenda — accountability via independent federal inquiry and conditional funding — and also show limited early legislative traction for her protest-protection bill compared with the many bills seeking to criminalize or penalize protesters in the same Congress; reporting and the congressional entries cited here establish sponsorship and key mechanics but do not supply debate transcripts, committee markup outcomes, or final vote results for these 2025 measures [3] [1] [2].