A search of US Representative Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington, DC, may indicate that federal investigators have gathered evidence and are approaching a critical stage in a lengthy investigation, according to a source cited by the New York Post.
The raid, carried out by Homeland Security Investigations agents early Monday, has fuelled speculation about whether authorities are examining longstanding, unverified allegations that the Minnesota Democrat misrepresented her age when obtaining US citizenship.
Several people familiar with the matter told the publication that the inquiry could centre on claims that Omar was older than the age she has consistently reported. If investigators established that she was above the qualifying age when she obtained citizenship through her father, it could raise questions about her eligibility under that process.
Former Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Fahey said the approval of a search warrant by a federal judge meant authorities had presented evidence supporting probable cause.
“The big picture here is a federal judge in Washington, DC, signed off on a search warrant. That means there’s probable cause that a federal crime was committed, and there would be evidence of that crime in the area to be searched, which in this case was Representative Omar’s home,” Fahey told the New York Post.
Agents removed boxes from Omar’s residence during the operation. The newspaper reported seeing officers carrying materials from the property to government vehicles, including a white vehicle marked with a pink X.
The Department of Justice confirmed the search in a statement.
“Today in the Washington, DC, area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,” the department said.
“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” it added.
Omar responded to the raid on social media, insisting she would not be intimidated and accusing the administration of targeting political opponents.
“I will not be silenced,” she said, describing the operation as “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
Fahey said securing a search warrant required investigators to convince a judge that there was sufficient legal basis for the search and reason to believe relevant evidence would be found at the specified location.
“For a DC judge to sign off on something that’s 20 years old, you have to say you believe there is current evidence of the crime in her house,” he said.
“A judge must have been very convinced.”
Although officials have not publicly detailed the evidence investigators were seeking, a source who requested anonymity told the New York Post that the inquiry could concern allegations about Omar’s age and the circumstances of her naturalisation.
Omar has said she became a US citizen automatically in 2000, when she was 17, as a minor child of a parent who had become a citizen. Her father, Nur Said Mohamed Elmi, reportedly arrived in the United States in 1995 after fleeing Somalia’s conflict.
In 2019, Minnesota resident AJ Kern publicly questioned Omar’s reported age, arguing that state records at the time suggested she may have been 18 or 19 in 2000.
Kern also claimed that Omar’s birth year on the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library’s website changed from 1981 to 1982 two days after a video about the allegations gained attention. She cited archived versions of the website as evidence of the revision.
Current congressional records list Omar’s birth year as 1982, which would make her 17 when she obtained citizenship in 2000.
The allegations remain unverified, and the information cited by the New York Post does not establish that Omar committed immigration fraud.
A source told the newspaper that naturalisation fraud generally has a 10-year statute of limitations. However, the source suggested that investigators could be examining whether any later use of allegedly inaccurate personal information on documents, such as passport renewals or loan applications, could constitute separate offences.
Fahey said the involvement of Homeland Security Investigations suggested that the inquiry concerned immigration matters.
“A federal judge saw something that said, we believe there’s evidence of a crime that will be found in that house, and presumably it would be something that’s not just a crime beyond the statute of limitations,” he said.
“There could be new crimes committed that stemmed from that previous fraud.”
He added that searches often take place after investigators have spent considerable time developing a case.
“Generally, a search warrant is issued towards the end of an investigation because you’re building up evidence that led to this search warrant,” Fahey said. “To get to the point of searching a home, you’ve developed a case for a fairly decent period of time.”
Omar has said she has never publicly produced a birth certificate because the document was destroyed during the turmoil in Somalia.
The search also followed earlier comments by Trump administration officials indicating that Omar was the subject of a criminal investigation. Border czar Tom Homan had previously referred to an ongoing probe, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly said on a podcast that “something’s going to happen” as investigators examined aspects of Omar’s family migration history.
The congresswoman has also faced years of allegations concerning her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Elmi, whom some have claimed was her brother. The New York Post reported that multiple sources familiar with the investigation believed the current Homeland Security inquiry was not focused on that marriage.
The allegations surrounding Elmi have circulated for years, including claims made by Minnesota bloggers and members of the state’s Somali community. Omar has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with an immigration-related crime.
The newspaper reported that Omar and Elmi legally married on February 12, 2009, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Their marriage was dissolved in 2017. Omar later legally married Ahmed Hirsi, with whom she had previously participated in a Muslim ceremony that was not recognised as a legal marriage by the state.
Documents reviewed by the newspaper reportedly showed that the three adults had shared a residence at one point. Omar subsequently divorced Hirsi in 2019 and married Tim Mynett, a former campaign staffer.
The New York Post also noted that the statute of limitations for marriage fraud would present a separate legal issue in relation to the earlier allegations. It reported that the claims about Elmi’s relationship to Omar were not the focus of the investigation described by its sources.
As of the report, federal authorities had not publicly specified the suspected offence or the evidence sought during the search. The investigation remains ongoing, and the allegations concerning Omar’s age and immigration history have not been established in court.
