- Former US president Barack Obama publicly defended Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar after the Trump Administration moved to deport her
- Federal agents raided Omar's home on October 12, seizing her phone and personal records over allegations that her father falsified her age on immigration documents
- Omar, 44, has served in Congress since January 2019 and has been one of President Trump's most vocal critics
Nancy Odindo is a current affairs writer at Tuko.co.ke (joined in 2023). She has one year of experience in print and more than five years in digital media.
Former US president Barack Obama on Sunday, October 18, issued a public defense of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, condemning what he described as a politically motivated deportation effort by the President Donald Trump Administration.
Source: Facebook
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1981, Omar fled civil war as a child and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States in 1995.
Obama laid out the circumstances of Omar's path to citizenship in a post on X, explaining that she arrived in the United States at the age of 12 and automatically became a naturalised citizen five years later when her father was naturalised, because she was still 17 at the time. Had she been 18, she would have had to apply separately.
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"Congresswoman Omar went on to graduate from college, work as a community organizer, become the first Somali-American legislator elected to public office in the U.S., and win a seat in Congress. There, she has been one of the Trump Administration’s fiercest critics, which has led the president to repeatedly single her out as someone who he believes does not belong in this country," Obama said.
He claimed that the administration is actively trying to deport Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalised.
Federal agents raid Omar's home
On October 12, federal agents searched Omar's home, confiscating personal records and her phone as part of an investigation into allegations that her father misrepresented her age on her immigration application.
The action forms the basis of a broader theory that Omar was actually 18 when her father was naturalised and therefore never acquired citizenship automatically.
Omar pushed back firmly against the raid and the underlying accusations.
"I'm ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponise federal law enforcement. 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," she said on her Facebook page.
Obama calls out broader pattern of political intimidation
Obama argued that the administration's actions against Omar are consistent with a wider pattern of using federal law enforcement against perceived political opponents, citing previous actions taken against the Attorney General of New York, the former head of the FBI, and members of the Federal Reserve.
He noted that those cases either stalled or were dismissed for lacking a legal basis.
"The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticise the president," Obama wrote, adding that the effort risked becoming a "new normal" regardless of which party held power.
"Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her—or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same," he said.
Further, the former head of state further expressed outrage that Omar has been forced to spend time fighting unsubstantiated charges instead of serving the people of Minnesota.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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