New details emerged on Wednesday about the investigation by US authorities into Representative Ilhan Omar, following a raid on her home last Monday. Reports said investigators seized the Democratic representative’s passport, phone, computers and notebooks, and that the efforts could ultimately be aimed at stripping her of her US citizenship and deporting her from the country.
Omar’s relatives subpoenaed and her phone seized
The Associated Press quoted an informed source as saying that authorities had issued subpoenas to some of Omar’s relatives to appear and testify before a grand jury gathering evidence in Minnesota. This is part of the federal investigation into the representative’s immigration records, while the source confirmed that authorities had seized her phone.
Officials told The Wall Street Journal that the investigation being conducted by President Donald Trump’s administration aims to “build a legal case to strip her of her US citizenship in preparation for deporting her”. The newspaper added that the investigation focuses on how Omar obtained citizenship after arriving from Somalia, as well as measures taken by her late father concerning the family’s immigration.
Sources who spoke to the newspaper said the items taken by authorities from Omar’s home were not limited to her phone, but also included her passport, personal computers and notebooks. One source said federal authorities had issued more than 12 subpoenas in the case, including to some of the representative’s relatives to testify.
Omar’s office rejects investigation and accuses Trump
Omar’s office said in a statement issued on Wednesday that “President Trump wants to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress”, stressing that the investigation had no basis. The representative and her team have repeatedly denied fraud allegations linked to her immigration file.
According to US media reports, officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division raided Omar’s home in Washington, DC, last Monday. The raid took place only a few weeks before the midterm elections scheduled for November. Authorities announced last month that they had opened an investigation into the possibility that Omar had committed violations related to her immigration documents when she entered the United States.
Immigration-document suspicions and financial-disclosure investigations
According to the reports, the case centres on suspicions concerning immigration documents completed by her late father when she was a child. Washington, DC, Attorney General Jeanine Pirro said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that there were “several ongoing investigations” concerning Omar.
She said her office was also examining matters connected to the representative’s financial disclosures, adding: “If a crime has been committed, those responsible will be prosecuted.” Democrats condemned the raid on Omar’s home immediately, accusing the Trump administration of targeting the representative for political purposes. Omar also described the search in a post on X as “an attempt to target political opponents and weaponise federal law-enforcement agencies”.
Omar said Trump had targeted her for 10 years with baseless lies and smear campaigns, describing the raid as the latest escalation in what she called a campaign of political intimidation. She added that the measures would neither frighten her nor drive her into silence.
The timing of the investigations raised questions about adherence to norms calling on the Justice Department to avoid politically sensitive public actions during the 60 days preceding elections. The case is part of a series of measures targeting Democratic figures, including Representative LaMonica McIver and Senator Adam Schiff, amid concerns that criminal investigations are being used for political pressure.
