Federal investigators revive Ilhan Omar immigration case after 2019 review
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A 2024 raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar's home has reopened a federal probe into her and her father's immigration records, even though a 2019 review had already closed the matter without finding evidence of fraud.
Federal officials carried out a search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's Minnesota residence last week as part of a revived investigation into whether she or her late father gave false information on immigration paperwork. The inquiry centers on alleged discrepancies in Omar's birth date and her father's claimed military service in Somalia, questions that were also reviewed in 2019.
In 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term, a political appointee pressed immigration authorities to examine Omar’s immigration record and that of her family, who arrived in the United States as Somali refugees. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, found no evidence of wrongdoing and closed the case.
"I think her citizenship is solid and there wasn’t any fraud there," said a former official familiar with the earlier investigation, as reported by The Washington Post.
Omar said the raid led to the seizure of items including an old phone, her youngest daughter’s phone, notebooks, a camera, and a Somali phrase book for children. She described the seizure of seventeen items, many of them personal belongings, as "bizarre."
The immigration probe comes alongside a separate investigation into Omar’s financial disclosure statements filed with Congress last year. A prior review of those disclosures during the Joe Biden administration was halted.
Omar has denied the allegations, casting the raid as a political move by the Trump administration aimed at targeting opponents ahead of the midterm elections. She also said she fears for her family’s safety, pointing to the public release of her address and earlier death threats as reasons it is no longer safe to stay in the home.