Federal agents raided Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington DC before dawn on Monday as part of an investigation into immigration paperwork completed on behalf of the Somali-born congresswoman by her father when she was a child.
Homeland Security Investigations carried out the search under a judicially authorised warrant secured by the Department of Justice.
A Justice Department spokesman said: “Today, in the Washington, DC area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorised search warrant secured by the Department of Justice.”
He added: “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation.”
Ms Omar, one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics in Congress, accused the administration of using the raid to intimidate political opponents.
Writing on X, she said: “I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”
The search represents a significant escalation of an investigation first disclosed in September by border czar Tom Homan. Asked whether Ms Omar was personally under investigation, Mr Homan declined to discuss specifics but said: “No one’s above the law.”
He also declined to rule out removing her US citizenship.
The inquiry has focused on immigration documents completed by Ms Omar’s late father. It also extends to allegations surrounding her disputed 2009 marriage, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warning that removal proceedings could follow if wrongdoing were established.
Ms Omar has denied an allegation that she married her brother to help him enter the United States, describing the claim as “absurd and offensive”.
She married her current husband, Tim Mynett, in Washington in March 2020, four months after her divorce from Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her three children, was finalised.
The raid comes less than seven weeks after Minneapolis police searched the apartment shared by Ms Omar’s 20-year-old son, Adnan Hirsi. Officers seized guns and ammunition from the property and arrested his 22-year-old roommate, Abdulrahman Abdi, on a weapons charge after finding a firearm in his impounded car.
Mr Hirsi has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The operation has placed immigration at the centre of a fresh confrontation between the Trump administration and Ms Omar, a member of the progressive Squad who has regularly attacked the president since his first term.
