Photo: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Federal agents searched the Washington, D.C. home of US Representative Ilhan Omar early on Monday, October 12, in what the Justice Department described as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrived at around 6 am local time, according to reports from the scene.
The department confirmed that HSI had carried out a search warrant approved by a court and obtained by federal prosecutors, but it did not say who was under investigation or whether Omar herself is suspected of any wrongdoing. Her office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
US Justice Department spokesperson
What the investigation is said to be about
People familiar with the case told several US news organisations that the inquiry centres on Omar’s immigration paperwork, including documents completed by her late father when she was a child. HSI, the criminal investigation wing of the Department of Homeland Security, handles cases such as immigration document fraud, identity fraud and immigration benefit fraud, and is leading the probe with the Justice Department’s help.
The search did not come entirely out of the blue. In September, White House border czar Tom Homan said publicly that Omar was the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. Omar said at the time that she had not been contacted by anyone about such a probe.
Who is Ilhan Omar
Omar, 44, is a Democrat who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Minneapolis. She fled Somalia’s civil war with her family at the age of eight and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before moving to the United States. First elected in 2018, she belongs to the group of progressive women lawmakers known as “the Squad” and has been a frequent target of President Donald Trump.
At a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, Trump singled her out again, telling the crowd that she “comes from Somalia” and that his administration was “looking at it very strongly”. Omar has previously blamed the president’s rhetoric about her and Somali immigrants as a factor behind an attack on her at a town hall meeting in January.
Why the timing matters
The search comes 22 days before the November midterm elections, in which Omar is seeking re-election. Long-standing Justice Department practice urges prosecutors to be cautious about investigative steps close to an election, and its written policy bars officials from timing actions or statements to influence a vote, though there is no blanket ban on activity in the weeks before polling.
No charges have been announced. The next questions are whether prosecutors move to charge anyone, and how Omar and congressional Democrats respond to a search of a sitting member’s home weeks before voters go to the polls.
