Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington home before sunrise Monday, part of a criminal investigation into the immigration paperwork her late father filled out when she was a child.
The Justice Department confirmed the search but would not say what agents were looking for. Agents in Homeland Security Investigations jackets were outside the home around 6 a.m., and two people close to the investigation say the focus is paperwork from 1995, when Omar arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia. She became a citizen in 2000.
“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.”
Department of Justice spokesperson
The raid did not come out of nowhere. Border czar Tom Homan said in September that Omar was under an ongoing criminal investigation. Back in March, Vice President JD Vance said the administration believed she had committed immigration fraud and was weighing how to go after her. Omar has denied the fraud claims for years and said investigators had never contacted her about any of it.
No charges have been announced, and it is not clear what agents took from the home, if anything. Omar’s office has not commented yet. The timing is impossible to miss: the search lands three weeks before the midterm elections, with Omar up for reelection in Minnesota.
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