Ilhan Omar home searched: Days after US government officials raided the home of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar as part of what's being called a "federal criminal investigation", speculations are rife that she may face legal challenge to her citizenship. This could only happen if investigators establish that she obtained her citizenship through material misrepresentation. Earlier this week, US immigration agents searched the home of Omar, a Democrat and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. The search "is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation", the US justice department spokesperson said.
The investigations into Rep. Ilhan Omar have raised questions about whether she could be stripped of her citizenship and deported, reports The Wall Street Journal. The predawn raid on Omar stemmed from an expanding investigation into her US immigration paperwork, three people familiar with the case told news agency Reuters.
Why was Ilhan Omar's home searched?
According to Reuters, the investigation apparently appeared to center on whether the Somali-born Omar or her relatives gave false information upon entering the US as refugees in the mid-1990s or during the process of becoming American citizens. Ilhan Omar has represented a Minnesota district since 2019.
The sealed warrant for Monday’s search listed possible crimes under investigation, including conspiracy, making false statements on immigration documents and immigration fraud, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters anonymously because the investigation is ongoing.
A source familiar with the probe told Reuters that investigators may be looking at whether Omar could lose her US citizenship and face deportation. President Donald Trump and his Homeland Security chief have both previously raised these possibilities.
Ihan Omar arrived in the United States with her family in 1995 after fleeing Somalia’s civil war and spending time in a refugee camp in Kenya. She became a US citizen in 2000 through her father’s naturalization. According to Axios, records indicate she was 17 at the time.
Can US strip Ilhan Omar of her citizenship?
The federal law allows the government to revoke citizenship in limited circumstances, but Omar's path to citizenship through her father could complicate such an effort. Authorities are planning to investigate whether Omar or her father misrepresented her birth date on immigration paperwork so she could qualify as a minor, which could affect whether she legally qualified for citizenship through him.
APHomeland Security officers stand next to their unmarked vehicles during a search of the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Under the law in effect at the time, children had to be under 18 to qualify for citizenship through a parent's naturalization, alongside other requirements.
When can US strip an individual of citizenship?
According to the US law, the government can revoke citizenship in cases in which a person was not legally eligible for citizenship or obtained it by deliberately misrepresenting or concealing important facts. Generally, the government cannot take citizenship away from someone who was a US citizen at birth. Federal law allows the government to revoke citizenship from someone naturalized as an immigrant under special circumstances, including when:
The citizenship was obtained illegally because the person didn't actually qualify.
Citizenship was obtained through a deliberate misrepresentation.
It was obtained by concealing important facts that might have threatened eligibility.
However, the government can't revoke citizenship because someone who legally acquired it commits a crime or criticizes the government.
Can Ilhan Omar be deported?
Omar's case is complicated because she says she obtained citizenship through her father's naturalization in 2000, before she was 18. Her mother died a decade earlier.
Someone who acquired citizenship through a parent can lose their status if a parent's naturalization is revoked due to fraud or misrepresentation.
However, because this occurred in 2000, an earlier federal law allowing automatic citizenship through a living parent's naturalization if the other parent was deceased still applies.
"The truth is that Trump's push to strip her of her citizenship and deport her has no basis in the law and has no precedent," a spokesperson for Omar tells Axios in a statement.
"This isn't a legitimate law enforcement action — it is an authoritarian move to silence an opponent right before an election where he and his party will be rejected by Americans in historic proportions. To Trump, no American value or principle is too important to be shredded for his own personal gain."