A predawn raid on Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s home by federal agents stemmed from an expanding investigation into her US immigration paperwork, three people familiar with the case said this week.
The investigation appears to center on whether the Somali-born Omar, who has represented a Minnesota district since 2019, or her relatives gave false information upon entering the US as refugees in the mid-1990s or during the process of becoming American citizens.
The sealed warrant for Monday's search listed conspiracy, false statements on immigration paperwork and immigration fraud as potential crimes being investigated, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Like the other people, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
One of the people familiar with the probe told Reuters that one potential aim could be to strip Omar of her US citizenship and deport her, ideas that both President Donald Trump and his Homeland Security chief have floated.
The targeting of a left-wing member of Congress whom Trump has long attacked in personal and bigoted terms has renewed concerns that his administration is using federal law enforcement to punish his political opponents, especially three weeks before an election when Omar is running to retain her seat.
Omar has denied wrongdoing, characterizing the raid as an act of “political intimidation.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration enforcement agency, referred questions to the Justice Department. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on the Omar investigation.
But in a statement, the spokesperson said that US citizenship "must be obtained lawfully and honestly" and the Trump administration would investigate any case where the facts support denaturalization, the legal process of revoking citizenship that was acquired after birth.
A spokesperson for Omar had no immediate comment.
A rare step
Former immigration officials said denaturalisation investigations have historically been rare, and it is extremely unusual for them to involve search warrants, as the government should already have the relevant immigration records.
"Most of the denaturalisation cases that we engaged in related either to very serious international human rights violations, or very serious crimes, such as Nazi war criminals,” said Kerry Doyle, a former deputy general counsel in the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seized Omar's personal cell phone during the search, according to two of the sources. Federal prosecutors also issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to at least one of Omar’s relatives, the two people said.
One of the people said a sister of Omar spoke voluntarily with federal agents.
It was unclear what evidence prosecutors presented to the federal magistrate judge who approved the raid.
A coalition of 14 news organisations, including Reuters, asked a federal judge on Thursday to unseal records related to the search.
Protections for Congress
The DOJ has traditionally refrained from investigative acts against political figures that are likely to become public within 60 days of an election, particularly if the evidence can be collected after votes are cast.
Omar's status as a sitting member of Congress made the timing all the more unusual, and the probe potentially more fraught.
Courts have ruled that federal authorities cannot review material related to the legislative acts of a member of Congress, which is protected under the US Constitution.
Before approving the search, US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered screening procedures to prevent such a review, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Under the terms of the warrant, prosecutors were supposed to inform Omar's lawyers about the protocol for protecting legislative records, but that has not happened, one of the people said.
Denaturalisation
Omar was 12 when her family arrived in the United States in 1995 after fleeing civil war in Somalia and spending years at a refugee camp in Kenya. She became a naturalized citizen in 2000.
Omar's background has been central to her political rise -- and a consistent target of her right-wing critics.
Trump has repeatedly attacked her heritage, her Muslim faith and the Somali community in Minnesota.
Asked by the New York Times in January if he thought Omar should lose her US citizenship, Trump replied: "Oh, absolutely."
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a conservative podcaster last month there may have been "some illegal activity for them (Omar's family) to come to the United States to begin with" and suggested deportation as a possibility.
A naturalized US citizen can lose citizenship if a judge finds it was obtained illegally or through the concealment or willful misrepresentation of material facts.
The DOJ has filed at least 164 denaturalization cases in Trump's second term. Between 1990 and 2017, just 11 denaturalization cases were opened on average each year, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.