Federal investigators are reportedly searching for evidence that could allow authorities to revoke Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s U.S. citizenship and seek her deportation.
Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, to a prosperous family. They moved to the Washington, D.C., suburbs before relocating to Minnesota as she approached high school. Omar later obtained U.S. citizenship through her father in 2000.
To strip her of that citizenship, the Justice Department would need to bring a federal lawsuit and demonstrate that she made a material misrepresentation during the naturalization process.
The reported legal theory comes as Homeland Security agents were seen raiding the progressive lawmaker’s Washington, D.C., home on Monday—roughly three weeks before the midterm election, in which Omar is seeking another term.
Federal agents took Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, computers and passport during the search, as authorities examine her citizenship status, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
Investigators have also issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including subpoenas directed at some of Omar’s relatives, seeking testimony before a Minnesota grand jury, according to the outlet.
The inquiry is examining the family’s immigration records to determine whether Omar—or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed—changed her age on citizenship paperwork so that she was listed as 17 rather than 18.
Had Omar been 18 when her father became a naturalized citizen, she would have been treated as an adult and required to pursue an immigration process independently. If she was still 17, however, she could have received citizenship automatically when her father was naturalized.
Federal investigators are reportedly seeking evidence that could support an effort to revoke Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s U.S. citizenship and deport her
Homeland Security officers were reportedly seen searching the congresswoman’s Washington, D.C., residence on Monday
Agents reportedly seized Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, computers and passport while examining her citizenship status
The Trump administration’s case depends on finding material evidence that Omar herself misrepresented her age, rather than showing that any false information came solely from her father, Leon Fresco, a former senior Justice Department immigration official under President Barack Obama, told the Journal.
A similar tip was reviewed by Homeland Security Investigations during the Biden administration. Federal officials ultimately declined to pursue the matter, saying they had found no evidence of fraud.
Omar has consistently denied wrongdoing. In September 2018, she said she obtained citizenship through her father’s naturalization “before I turned 18.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Omar’s staff characterized the investigation as an attempt to intimidate or silence the Democratic lawmaker.
“President Trump would love to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress,” her office told the Journal, adding that the investigation had “no basis.”
The inquiry has also drawn attention to a change Omar’s staff reportedly sought in official state records only months after she won her first election to Congress in 2018.
For years, the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library listed Omar’s birth date as October 4, 1981. Wikipedia and news organizations, including the BBC, used the same date in biographies of the congresswoman.
Emails obtained by the New York Post show that Omar’s aides asked the library in May 2019 to change the birth year to 1982.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro also said Tuesday that her office is reviewing the congresswoman’s financial disclosures
The library’s director wrote in one message, sent days after the edit, that Omar’s team had said ‘her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982.’
The same email claimed that her aides were lobbying Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress to make the same birthdate correction.
Federal prosecutors have since served grand jury subpoenas on Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, and at least one other relative.
Noor runs a Minneapolis-based consulting firm that says it secured ‘more than $20 million in funding for health initiatives and consulted on projects backed by’ the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Agency for International Development and other groups.
As federal investigators now try to find proof that Omar lied on her citizenship application, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that her office will be conducting a probe of the congresswoman’s financial disclosures as well.
‘We’re looking at the facts,’ Pirro told Fox News.
President Donald Trump on Monday denied having any involvement in the search on the congresswoman’s home
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Omar’s 2025 filing had listed assets of between $6 million and $30 million shared with her husband before she amended it to a far smaller range, blaming accounting errors.
The House’s own ethics watchdog had recommended dismissing allegations over the filings last month, a finding Omar’s office has pointed to in her defense.
Still, Omar has long faced allegations, including claims made to Our News Outlet by a Somali community leader, that her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Elmi was intended to help him obtain US immigration status.
Omar denies that Elmi was her brother or that the marriage was fraudulent.
When asked about the search on Monday, Donald Trump told reporters: ‘I have nothing to do with it.’
The president insisted the matter was ‘really up to the DOJ,’ while still branding Omar ‘totally crooked, personally.’
