Federal agents searched the Washington, D.C.-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar early Monday morning. The Justice Department confirmed that agents carried out a court-authorized search warrant but did not name Omar or describe the investigation.
According to the Associated Press and Fox News, the search was carried out by agents from Homeland Security Investigations, an investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security. Fox News reported that the search is part of a criminal investigation into the Minnesota Democrat’s immigration paperwork. Her late father filled out those papers after the family came to the U.S. from Somalia when she was a child. Omar, 44, has been a U.S. citizen since 2000.
Omar has denied the allegations and called them politically motivated. In September, she said Homeland Security had never contacted her. She had not commented publicly on the search as of Monday. No charges have been announced, and the search came three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
This is a developing story.
Top photo: Rep. Ilhan Omar at a press conference in Minneapolis, August 2020. Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Bottom photo: Omar speaking at a worker protest against Amazon, December 2018. Fibonacci Blue, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.