Ilhan Omar’s home raided: Feds reportedly seek to strip citizenship, deport

Federal investigators raided Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home on Monday as part of an effort to strip her citizenship and eventually deport her, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Federal search and political reaction around Ilhan Omar

Federal investigators seized Omar's phone, and they have subpoenaed her relatives. They also carried boxes of evidence out of her Washington home on Monday.

The search was unusual because federal investigators have historically avoided such actions against political candidates within 60 days of an election. The raid came just over three weeks before Election Day.

Omar has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with her immigration paperwork. She called the search "an outrageous abuse of power" and a "weaponization of federal law enforcement."

A day after the raid, President Donald Trump said: "I think she’s a terrible person. I think she’s a terrible congresswoman. I don’t think she loves our country at all."

Citizenship questions and legal hurdles in the case

The Wall Street Journal reported that investigators were looking into possible fraud in Omar's immigration paperwork. The report said investigators were examining whether Omar's father changed her age on her citizenship application, making her 17 at the time and automatically qualifying her to become naturalized with him.

The Journal reported that the Trump administration aims to denaturalize Omar and eventually deport her. Omar said the effort is "an attempt to target political enemies" and added that she "will not be silenced."

Twin Cities-based immigration attorney Ana Pottratz Acosta said the government would need to prove in court that Omar or her father lied on immigration forms before Omar became a citizen in 2000.

"It would be very difficult. The burden is on the government," she said. "They would have the burden of establishing that Representative Omar, who was a child when she acquired citizenship, or her father, who passed away in 2020, committed fraud at some point in the process."

Omar was born in Somalia in 1982 and immigrated with her family to the United States in 1995. She became a naturalized citizen in 2000, when she was 17.

Denaturalization is rare. Between 1968 and 2013, the government stripped citizenship from fewer than 150 people, according to congress.gov.

"No reasonable person would have lied about a date of birth to have your child acquire citizenship when they very easily just could’ve gone through another process that isn’t that big of a deal," said Acosta.

The scope of the federal investigation remains unclear. The Justice Department has only said that it conducted a court-authorized search as part of a criminal investigation.