Federal investigators are said to be looking for any evidence that could lead authorities to strip Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her American citizenship and deport her.
Omar had been born in Mogadishu, Somalia to an affluent family, who settled in the Washington DC suburbs before they moved to Minnesota as she entered high school. She then gained citizenship through her father in the year 2000.
In order to now strip her of that citizenship, the Justice Department would have to file a lawsuit in federal courts proving she lied in a material way to become a US citizen.
That is reportedly why Homeland Security agents were seen on Monday raiding the progressive lawmaker’s home in Washington DC, just three weeks before the midterm elections in which Omar is seeking re-election.
Agents seized Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and her passport in the raid as federal authorities probe Omar’s citizenship status, US officials and people familiar with the investigation told the Wall Street Journal.
Authorities have also issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to some of Omar’s relatives, seeking testimony before a Minnesota grand jury, the outlet reports.
They are now trying to uncover Omar’s family’s immigration paperwork to determine whether the Democrat or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, changed her age on her citizenship application to indicate she was 17 years old instead of 18.
If she had been 18 years old when her father became a naturalized citizen, she would have been considered an adult and would have to pursue her own immigration process. But if she was still 17, Omar would have qualified for citizenship automatically when her father’s citizenship was approved.
Federal investigators are reportedly trying to find evidence that could lead authorities to strip Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her American citizenship and deport her
Homeland Security officers were seen raiding the congresswoman’s Washington DC house on Monday
Agents seized Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and her passport in the raid as federal authorities probe Omar’s citizenship status
The Trump administration’s case now hinges on finding material evidence proving that Omar lied about her own age, rather than have her father lie on her behalf, Leon Fresco, a top immigration official in the Justice Department under the Obama administration, told the Journal.
However, when officials at Homeland Security Investigations looked into a similar tip under the Biden administration, federal officials decided not to move forward with the case because they lacked any evidence of fraud.
Omar has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying in September 2018 that she became a citizen ‘before I turned 18’ through her father’s naturalization.
In a statement on Wednesday, staff members at the Democrat’s office also painted the investigation as part of an effort to silence Omar.
‘President Trump would love to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress,’ they said in a statement to the Journal, adding ‘there is no basis’ for the investigation.
But it has since been revealed that the congresswoman’s staff pushed to change her birthdate in official state records just months after she first won her seat in 2018.
Omar had been listed as born on October 4, 1981 by the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library throughout her time in the state House. Wikipedia and news outlets including the BBC carried the same date on her biography.
However, in May 2019, her aides asked the library to move the year forward to 1982, according to emails obtained by the New York Post.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro also announced on Tuesday her office is examining the congresswoman’s financial disclosures
The library’s director wrote in one message, sent days after the edit, that Omar’s team had said ‘her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982.’
The same email claimed that her aides were lobbying Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress to make the same birthdate correction.
Federal prosecutors have since served grand jury subpoenas on Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, and at least one other relative.
Noor runs a Minneapolis-based consulting firm that says it secured ‘more than $20 million in funding for health initiatives and consulted on projects backed by’ the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Agency for International Development and other groups.
As federal investigators now try to find proof that Omar lied on her citizenship application, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that her office will be conducting a probe of the congresswoman’s financial disclosures as well.
‘We’re looking at the facts,’ Pirro told Fox News.
President Donald Trump on Monday denied having any involvement in the search on the congresswoman’s home
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Omar’s 2025 filing had listed assets of between $6 million and $30 million shared with her husband before she amended it to a far smaller range, blaming accounting errors.
The House’s own ethics watchdog had recommended dismissing allegations over the filings last month, a finding Omar’s office has pointed to in her defense.
Still, Omar has long faced allegations, including claims made to the Daily Mail by a Somali community leader, that her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Elmi was intended to help him obtain US immigration status.
Omar denies that Elmi was her brother or that the marriage was fraudulent.
When asked about the search on Monday, Donald Trump told reporters: ‘I have nothing to do with it.’
The president insisted the matter was ‘really up to the DOJ,’ while still branding Omar ‘totally crooked, personally.’
