Federal agents searched the Washington, D.C., home of Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Oct. 12 as part of a criminal investigation into her immigration and citizenship records. They seized her phone, and investigators have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, according to The Associated Press. Omar denies any wrongdoing. On Friday, Oct. 16, her lawyers demanded that the Justice Department return everything agents took, calling the search unjustified and unlawful. The department says their letter is full of false claims.
At the heart of the case is one question about a date. Investigators want to know how old Omar was when she became a U.S. citizen. According to former immigration officials, the government has looked into her background before and walked away.
Why did federal agents search Ilhan Omar’s home?
Homeland Security Investigations agents served a search warrant approved by a judge, the Justice Department confirmed to Newsweek. The warrant listed potential charges of conspiracy, immigration fraud and false statements, according to a person familiar with the document cited by The Washington Post.
Omar hasn’t been charged with a crime, and a search doesn’t establish wrongdoing.
What does a birth date have to do with Ilhan Omar’s citizenship?
According to The Post, agents are focused on whether Omar or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, misstated her birth date on immigration paperwork so she could gain citizenship through him as a minor when he was naturalized in 2000. Children who are still minors when a parent naturalizes can become citizens through that parent. Critics have long claimed she was already 18.
In 2019, Omar’s congressional staff asked the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library to change her listed birth year from 1981 to 1982, Fox News reported. Omar has said those requests corrected mistakes and weren’t meant to hide anything.
Investigators are also reportedly examining her father’s past as an officer in Somalia’s military. Mohamed, an educator who trained teachers, brought his family to the United States in 1995 after years in a Kenyan refugee camp. He died in 2020. A 2019 Snopes fact check found no evidence for viral online claims labeling him a war criminal.
Did investigators look at Ilhan Omar before?
Yes, according to former immigration officials. In 2019, a political appointee requested a review of Omar’s background. Career officials at Homeland Security Investigations examined claims about her past marriage and family ties, then dropped the review after finding insufficient evidence to pursue charges.
The current probe stems from a renewed review that Homeland Security Investigations launched earlier this year, The Post reported. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has publicly repeated claims about her marriage, which Omar has long called lies.
What are Ilhan Omar’s lawyers demanding?
Her lawyers want her property returned and any audio and video from the search preserved. They say agents may have ignored limits the judge placed on the warrant, and they describe the probe as a vindictive, politically motivated attack on one of President Donald Trump’s leading critics. The Justice Department says it followed every court order.
Why does the timing of the search matter?
The Justice Department has historically tried to avoid public investigative steps involving candidates within 60 days of an election, according to the AP. Omar is on the ballot Nov. 3, and agents searched her home about three weeks earlier.
Days before the search, Trump spoke negatively about Ilhan Omar’s home country at a Tennessee rally and suggested his administration was investigating her. Afterward, he said he had nothing to do with the search.
Could Ilhan Omar lose her citizenship?
The Post reported that the investigation could lead to fraud charges and possibly an effort to strip her citizenship. But stripping someone’s citizenship is rare and difficult. Courts require the government to prove its case with clear and convincing evidence.
Omar says her status is secure. The government hasn’t said what it has found. For now, the case rests on a date written on paperwork more than a quarter century ago.
