US government officials raided the home of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar this week as part of what’s being called a “federal criminal investigation”.
The search warrant was approved by a court, the justice department said. The nature of the criminal investigation remains unclear.
The search follows multiple comments from officials that cast doubt on Omar’s US citizenship, which she received in 2000 after her arrival from Kenya.
Omar, who has represented Minnesota since 2018, has said the raid is “the latest escalation” in President Donald Trump’s “campaign of political intimidation”. He has denied being involved.
What is Omar being investigated for?
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched Omar’s home in Washington DC on 12 October, while she was there with her husband.
The Wall Street Journal reported that her cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and passport were among the items that were seized.
“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the justice department said in a statement at the time.
Since then, investigators have issued more than a dozen subpoenas to Omar’s family members, Fox News reports.
Multiple US media outlets have reported that the investigation is tied to Omar’s US citizenship and whether she lied about her age when she arrived in the US in 1995.
Questions have been raised about whether the age listed on Omar’s citizenship application differed from her actual birth date.
Her marriages have also come under suspicion. Trump is among those who have accused her of marrying her brother to get US citizenship.
Omar’s finances have been scrutinised in relation to her current marriage to former Democratic political consultant Timothy Mynett. She has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and has called the investigations into her “complete shams”.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said her office is investigating Omar’s financial disclosures.
Omar’s immigration records have been scrutinised in the past by Republicans and, earlier this year, fellow congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina unsuccessfully sought a subpoena for her records.
How did Omar obtain her citizenship?
Mynett told Fox News that Omar came to the US when she was 12 as a war refugee. He said he has “no concerns” about her citizenship.
Omar was born in Somalia before fleeing with her family to a refugee camp in Kenya. She arrived in the US with her father and others in 1995 before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 2000.
According to US media, the crux of the investigation is whether her father lied about her age on the application, writing she was 17 rather than 18.
If Omar was 18 at the time her father applied for citizenship, she would have needed to pursue her own immigration process separately.
Who is Omar’s father?
After arriving from Kenya, Nur Omar Mohamed initially settled with his family in Washington before later moving to Minnesota. He worked as a cabdriver and postal worker.
Omar described him as an educator and said he died in 2020 from Covid-19 complications.
According to the New York Post, which cited an Oxford University doctoral researcher, Mohamed “misrepresented himself as a refugee”.
The Post said he had a decades-long military career, including a leadership position under former Somali President Siad Barre’s military dictatorship.
Barre seized power in Somalia in a bloodless coup in 1969. While his supporters saw him as a pan-Africanist who supported causes such as the campaign against South Africa’s racist system of apartheid, his critics viewed him as a dictator who oversaw numerous human rights abuses until he was driven from power in 1991.
“[Nur Omar Mohamed] was a full colonel in Siad Barre’s military regime,” historian and researcher Mohamed Haji Ingiriis told The Post. “Ilhan’s father was never an educator.”
The BBC has reached out to Omar for comment.
Can Omar be deported?
The Trump administration has made a concerted effort to detain and deport immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally. Permanent residents and green card holders have also been affected.
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data research company, there has also been a surge in denaturalisation lawsuits filed by the Trump administration.
Denaturalisation is where the US citizenship of a person who was not granted it by birth is taken away. The justice department must file a lawsuit proving the person lied in a material way during their application process.
This appears to be where the groundwork is being laid in the current investigation into Omar.
What has Omar said?
Trump has repeatedly suggested Omar be deported, calling for her to “go back” to Somalia.
At a rally in Ohio on Monday, Trump referred to the search of Omar’s home, saying: “I don’t know what they’re doing with it, but I can tell you this: she’s a disaster.”
Trump went on to denigrate Somalis in the US more generally, which was greeted with chants of “deport” in the crowd.
After her home was searched, Omar wrote on X: “I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” she continued. “I will not be silenced.”
Trump has said the investigation into her has “nothing to do with me”.
The timing of the federal probe has defied justice department precedent of not taking action against officials running for office this close to an election.
The raid happened with the November midterm elections only weeks away, drawing condemnation from some of Omar’s Democratic colleagues, who said she had been subject to relentless “vile personal attacks and baseless accusations”.
By BBC News
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