After a series of social media posts declaring Muslims “don’t belong in American society” and “all have to go back,” Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) said in an exclusive interview with Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy that mass deportation of Muslim Americans is neither feasible nor the issue he intends to address.
On March 9, when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi alleging that they were acting in support of ISIS when they attempted to detonate two explosive devices in the vicinity of Gracie Mansion, Ogles wrote in a social media post, “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.”
That post has since been viewed over 22 million times on X.
One day later, Ogles wrote in another social media post responding to a report that Kayumi’s parents are naturalized citizens from Afghanistan, “Paperwork doesn’t magically make you American. Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.”
During a taping of the new long-form podcast, Michael Patrick Leahy Interviews, Ogles was pressed directly on whether his remarks meant he supported deporting the estimated 4.5 million Muslims currently living in the United States, including American citizens. The new weekly series is set to debut on Tuesday, March 24.
“That’s not a realistic proposition, nor, quite frankly, is it a question,” Ogles said. “What we should be talking about is what do we do going forward?”
Ogles went on to frame his comments as an attempt to “force this conversation,” pointing to what he described as a recent series of violent incidents across the nation.
“So what’s happened over the last three weeks, we’ve had four terror attacks, all committed by Muslims, all in the name of their God,” he said. “You had the shooting in Virginia, the shooting in Texas, the car attack in Michigan, and then the bomb throwing in New York.”
He went on to criticize Muslim institutions in the U.S., specifically for the lack of public condemnation from religious leaders regarding the recent attacks.
“There’s roughly 3,000 mosques in the United States of America, and as of this morning, we wanna know how many have condemned the violence. I’m guessing zero… Not a single one,” Ogles said. “The Muslim community has an opportunity to rise up and to take a stand and say, we will not tolerate this type of violence in our communities and we’re not gonna allow it here in the United States of America.”
At the same time, Ogles said he is open to engaging with individuals who support peaceful coexistence.
“I’ve been openly saying that I’m willing to talk to anyone who’s willing to pursue peace, who loves America and wants to be here,” he said. “But when you have 3000 mosques silent on the killing and the targeting of Americans in the name of a God, that’s a problem.”
“If a Christian killed in the name of God, I personally would condemn the violence. I personally would disavow that individual and I would demand my pastor do the same,” Ogles added.
Rather than advocating for mass deportation, Ogles emphasized stricter immigration enforcement and vetting processes.
“All I’m saying is we’ve got to have this conversation. We have to vet who’s coming here, and if you lied on your naturalization form, we can, by the way, denaturalize you and we can deport you,” Ogles stressed.
“So if you came here and you claimed an allegiance to the United States of America and you concealed information on your forms, you can be denaturalized,” he added.
Ogles continued, pointing to crime and migration issues in Europe as cautionary examples.
“Let’s look at Europe. Let’s learn from the mistakes of our counterparts,” Ogles said, referencing crime data from cities such as London, Paris, and Rome. “We have actual concrete data put out by other governments…It’s not my data, it’s not Republican data. They’re waving a warning flag.”
The Tennessee congressman has since announced plans to introduce a bill called the “Assimilation Act of 2026,” which he says would significantly overhaul U.S. immigration policy by targeting chain migration, the H-1B visa program, and Diversity Lottery visas, while also strengthening character requirements and the amount of vetting required for approval to immigrate to the United States.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
