Federal agents carried out an early-morning raid at Representative Ilhan Omar’s Washington-area home on Monday as part of a criminal fraud investigation into her immigration paperwork.
The investigation into the Democratic lawmaker’s immigration paperwork is being led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the agency’s criminal investigations arm, with the Department of Justice assisting. The paperwork in question was filled out by Omar’s late father when she came to the country as a child, Fox News reported.
“Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” a Department of Justice spokesperson said in a statement.
President Trump often attacks Omar as a radical who is out to damage the country. Border czar Tom Homan confirmed in September that there was an ongoing investigation pertaining to Omar’s immigration status.
“I’m confirming that ICE is, yeah — look, I said months ago that there’s something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at,” Homan told Fox News at the time.
Vice President JD Vance said in May that the administration planned to investigate Omar over immigration fraud allegations and family financial disclosures. Those allegations include that she entered the U.S. in 1995 under a false name or secondary family identity to circumvent refugee processing backlogs.
“It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws,” Vance said at the time. “So we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime.”
House Democratic leadership issued a joint statement calling the raid “deeply disturbing” and saying it “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”
“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. “Now, less than 30 days until midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”
Omar has represented Minnesota’s fifth congressional district since 2019. The Somali-born lawmaker is a controversial figure within her party and a member of “the Squad” of progressive lawmakers.
Since she first ran for Congress, Omar has faced allegations that she married her brother in order to help him secure a U.S. visa or student loans. She has denied the claims.
Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen, in 2009. She has refuted claims that Elmi, whom she divorced in 2017, is her brother.
The lawmaker has also faced scrutiny over the timeline of her two marriages. She says she entered into a religious marriage with Ahmed Hirsi in 2002 but that they later separated before she married Elmi. She says she an Elmi separated in 2011, years before they filed for divorce, and she later reconciled with Hirsi, the father of her children.
A Minnesota state campaign finance board found in 2019 that she filed joint tax returns with Hirsi in 2014 and 2015 while she was still legally married to Elmi.