Fox News reports probe tied to Omar’s immigration paperwork
Federal agents search Ilhan Omar’s home as Democrats decry abuse of power
Federal agents searched the Washington residence of Representative Ilhan Omar on Monday morning, and Democratic lawmakers responded within hours with a joint statement from the party’s House leadership and a series of individual condemnations. Omar is a Somali-born, naturalized US citizen who has represented Minnesota in Congress.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, party whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar issued a joint statement excoriating President Trump for the search. “The Trump administration’s raid on congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against [the president’s] adversaries,” the statement said.
The same statement said: “For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations. Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected member of Congress and her family.” The Democratic leaders vowed to “deliver full accountability for the rogue abuse of power” from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the latter of which oversees immigration enforcement.
Federal authorities have not publicly stated the basis for the search. Fox News, which is typically friendly with the Trump administration, reported that the search pertained to a criminal fraud investigation concerning Omar’s immigration paperwork, citing unnamed sources “close to the investigation.” Omar’s late father filled out that paperwork when Omar was a child.
California representative Ro Khanna condemned the search, saying: “It is simply chilling that they are targeting political opponents this way, and it is disturbing that they are targeting Muslim Americans and a Muslim American legislator. Any decent American needs to stand up and speak out.”
Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a fellow California Democrat, called the search “fascism in the extreme.” “This is an unadulterated abuse of power,” Kamlager-Dove said. “Trump is weaponizing the federal government to escalate his racist attacks against [representative] Omar, undermine her ahead of the midterms [on 3 November], and distract from his failures as president.”
Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic House member from Washington state, called the search a “disgusting abuse of power from an out of control president” facing widespread public disapproval from high living costs amid the war in Iran that he helped start alongside Israel in February. “To use federal law enforcement resources to raid the home of a sitting Member of Congress weeks before an election is a dangerous sign of an authoritarian president who will stop at nothing to distract you from his deep unpopularity with the American people,” Jayapal added.
Jayapal’s statement alluded to years of unsubstantiated rumors from Trump and others about Omar and her family, including the accusation that her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is in fact her brother, and that the marriage was part of an effort to earn him immigration status. Omar has denied those rumors.
The Illinois representative Delia Ramirez called for the Department of Homeland Security to be dismantled. Omar “has not backed down, so now they are using DHS and the federal government to target and persecute her,” Ramirez said in a post on X. “This is an absolute abuse of power and unacceptable. We must strip them of their weapons. We must dismantle DHS.”
Greg Casar, a Democratic representative from Texas, wrote that the Trump administration is targeting Omar “because he thinks it’ll help his [Republican] party” during the midterms, when it is expected to lose seats in Congress. “Ilhan Omar stands up and won’t let Trump do whatever he wants to our country,” Casar said. “It’s up to us to do the same.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the US’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, also spoke out against the search. “We strongly condemn this unconscionable raid on her home for what it is: an obvious act of political persecution,” the council said.
Criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex-trafficking network, as well as the president’s pardons for those who attacked the US Capitol in early 2021, the council said the justice department “could clearly [not] care less about fighting crime and is instead focused on conducting a witch hunt.”