Ilhan Omar warns Trump after feds raid her home over immigration fraud probe: ‘Won’t be silenced’

WASHINGTON, DC: “Squad” Rep Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) warned President Donald Trump that she “won’t be silenced” after federal agents raided her Washington, DC, residence on Monday morning, October 12, as part of a criminal investigation.

The raid on the Somali-born congresswoman’s home began around 6 am, with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leading the operation. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is also involved in the investigation.

Several agents were seen carrying boxes from the residence to government vehicles, including a white vehicle marked with a pink X.

Sources have claimed that the search is linked to a criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which her late father completed when she was a child.

Ilhan Omar accuses Trump of political intimidation

In their statements, Omar and her allies alleged that the raid on her residence was part of President Trump’s repeated attempts to intimidate her.

“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar said in a statement on X.

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”

“I will not be silenced,” the congresswoman added in a personal response to the president.

Democrats, including fellow “Squad” Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), quickly came to her defence, saying, “DHS raiding a member of Congress’s home is exactly what a fascist police state does.”

House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement that the search was “deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California vowed to “deliver full accountability for the rogue abuse of power from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.”

Asked about the search outside the White House, Trump, who has frequently criticised Omar for her liberal positions and told her to “go back” to where she came from, said he had “nothing to do with it.” He added that investigators were “looking at her very carefully.”

“I’ve always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” Trump said. “I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ.”

Federal agents investigate alleged immigration fraud

Sources close to the investigation have suggested that the raid indicates law enforcement officials may have gathered evidence of criminal activity and could be nearing the end of a lengthy investigation.

“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,” former assistant US attorney Jonathan Fahey told The Post.

He also maintained that obtaining a search warrant from a DC judge is not easy, particularly given what he described as the judiciary’s hostility toward the current administration’s actions.

“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, adding, “A judge must have been very convinced.”

While federal authorities have remained silent on the investigation, one source suggested that the search could be connected to longstanding, unverified allegations that Omar misrepresented her age to obtain US citizenship.

Omar has said that she automatically received US citizenship in 2000, at age 17, as a minor child of a naturalized parent. In her case, her father, Nur Said Mohamed Elmi, fled war-torn Somalia for the US in 1995.

However, her claims came under scrutiny in 2019 when Minnesota resident AJ Kern publicly questioned Omar’s reported age, arguing that state documents suggested she may have been 18 or 19 in 2000.

According to the allegations, if Omar had already turned 18, she would not have qualified for citizenship through the same route available to minor children.

Kern claimed that two days after she released a viral video questioning Omar’s age, the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library’s website changed Omar’s birth year from 1981 to 1982. She cited archived versions of the website as evidence of the alleged change.

Current congressional records list Omar’s birth date as October 1982, which would make her 17 when she obtained citizenship in 2000.

One source told The New York Post that naturalisation fraud generally carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

However, the source suggested that if Omar had continued using an allegedly false birth date on documents such as passport renewals or bank loan applications, that could potentially restart the limitations period.

Investigators may be looking for such records, the source speculated.