Federal agents arrived early Monday at the Washington, D.C., residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar and carried out a search. The timing placed the action roughly three weeks ahead of the midterm elections, where the Minnesota Democrat is seeking another term.
According to the Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter and U.S. officials described the broader investigation as an effort to assemble a case that could lead to the loss of her citizenship and possible removal from the country.
Agents left with her cellphone, several notebooks, personal computers, and her passport. The congresswoman and her husband were the only people present in the home during the search. The Justice Department confirmed that Homeland Security agents had executed a warrant approved by a court, though officials declined to offer any additional explanation about the scope or purpose.
Questions focus on age listed in citizenship papers and earlier family arrival
More than a dozen subpoenas have also gone out, according to a person familiar with the proceedings. Some of those directed to Omar’s relatives request testimony before a grand jury in Minnesota. Investigators are reviewing immigration documents tied to the family as part of the inquiry.
Omar and her relatives came to the United States in 1995 from a refugee camp in Kenya, brought by her father, Nur Omar Mohamed. People familiar with the probe said investigators are examining both the congresswoman’s own steps toward citizenship and actions taken by her father, who died in 2020.
A main point of interest is whether the age entered on the citizenship application showed her as 17 rather than 18. Listing her as 17 would have meant she received citizenship automatically through her father’s process instead of filing separately. She became a citizen in 2000.
A similar tip reached Homeland Security Investigations during the Biden administration. Officials reviewed it at the time but chose not to advance the matter because they did not have evidence of fraud, according to people familiar with those earlier steps.
Removing citizenship requires the Justice Department to file a lawsuit in federal court and prove that someone made a material false statement to obtain it. Most of the denaturalization cases filed so far this term remain undecided.
Omar addressed related claims in a Wall Street Journal interview earlier this year. She said she never committed immigration fraud. Her office issued a statement on Wednesday that read, “President Trump would love to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress. There is no basis for this.”
President Trump has repeatedly called for Omar’s deportation, and also suggested that she faked an attack on her for political gains. On Monday evening he spoke to an audience in Ohio about Omar and other Somalis, after which people in the crowd chanted “deport.” He told the group, “They cheat on everything,” and added, “We’re not going to stand for it.”
The administration has filed more than 200 lawsuits seeking to denaturalize individuals, a volume officials have described as the widest such effort in Justice Department history. In prior years the government typically brought roughly a dozen or fewer of these cases annually, according to data tracked by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Omar’s situation, if it moves forward, would rank among the most prominent of the filings.
Leon Fresco, who held a senior immigration post at the Justice Department during the Obama administration, said success would largely depend on evidence that Omar herself provided false information about her age, rather than only her father. “That would make the case significantly easier to prosecute,” he said. “But either way, they are not traveling a well-paved road here.”
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, stated that her office is separately reviewing Omar’s financial disclosures. “There are several investigations going on,” she said Tuesday on Fox News.
“If there was a crime that was committed it will be prosecuted.” Pirro added that it “doesn’t matter” that a nonpartisan body reviewing congressional ethics matters earlier this year found no wrongdoing in documents Omar filed that substantially overstated her wealth.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told a conservative podcaster last month that a federal investigation into Omar remains active. He said she “married her brother to try to bring him into the United States,” a claim President Trump has also raised on multiple occasions. Omar has denied the allegation for more than a decade. Questions about her immigration history and marriages have circulated since she first ran for the Minnesota House in 2016.
Published: Oct 15, 2026 11:00 am