ICE Investigators Seize Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Phone, Subpoena Her Relatives, As Racist Lawfare Continues

The Trump administration is seeking to revoke the citizenship of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and deport her — a thing racist Republicans have spent years calling for, despite there being no evidence that Omar is in the country unlawfully — not because she’s guilty of anything, or because she’s not a U.S. citizen, or because she’s guilty of any kind of fraud, but because she’s a Muslim Black woman of Somali descent, and she’s a staunch critic of President Donald Trump.

And if this administration can do that to her, it can do it to anyone.

As we previously reported, on Monday, federal agents executed a search warrant on Omar’s Washington, DC, area home, as the administration claims she’s being investigated for possible fraud regarding her immigration paperwork. Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), authorized and conducted the search. 

Trump’s so-called border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed a federal criminal investigation involving Omar is ongoing. The Associated Press reported Thursday that “federal authorities seized her phone and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, according to a person briefed on the probe.” According to the New York Times, Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, and at least one other family member received a subpoena.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, an insider familiar with the investigation confirmed that its aim is to build a case to justify stripping the elected congresswoman of her citizenship.

Here’s what the administration is alleging, via Al Jazeera:

At issue in the citizenship inquiry is whether Omar or her late father altered her age in immigration paperwork to indicate that she was 17 rather than 18 when her father applied for citizenship, the Journal reported.

According to the newspaper, investigators are examining whether that allowed her to acquire citizenship through her father rather than having to undergo a separate application process.

Omar’s father died in 2020, complicating efforts to collect evidence on whether Omar lied about her own age – which, according to a former top immigration official in the Justice Department, the Trump administration would hinge its case on – or whether her father lied on her behalf.

The Journal also reported that Homeland Security Investigations officials examined a similar allegation during the administration of former President Joe Biden but did not pursue it because they lacked evidence of fraud.

So, this administration is doing all of this because it suspects that either Omar, who has been in the U.S. since she was 12, or her deceased father said on her immigration paperwork that she was a year younger than she actually was when she became a citizen. Is this about protecting the U.S. from dangerous immigrants, or, at the very least, deporting migrants who are here unlawfully, or is it about a political rivalry that weaponizes xenophobic bigotry? Is this even a question a reasonable person would need to ask?

Here’s what I wrote about Trump’s history of attacking Omar in our previous report on the raid:

In November of last year, Trump suggested to  Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that Omar can’t rightfully criticize him because she’s “from Somalia.”

“I look at somebody that comes from Somalia, where they don’t have anything – they don’t have police, they don’t have military, they don’t have anything, all they have is crime – and [Omar] comes in and tells us how to run our country!” he said.

Then he did it again a month later, during a Mar-a-Lago press conference, where he attacked Omar and all of Somalia while speaking about the shootings of two National Guard members, which, of course, had nothing to do with Omar or the country where she was born.

Around that same time, the president of the United States took to social media and described Omar as “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab,” and falsely claimed she “probably came into the U.S.A. illegally.” Then he repeated a debunked MAGA rumor that she married her own brother to get a green card, a lie he also repeated to reporters outside of Air Force One.

Then in January, Trump announced that “the DOJ and Congress are looking at ‘Congresswoman’ Ilhan Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars,” and said “time will tell” whether there was any merit to the investigation, which we haven’t heard anything about since, likely because time told, and there was no such merit.

Trump has made it abundantly clear that he hates Somalia and anyone who is from there, and he has made it abundantly clear that he hates Ilhan Omar, and will abuse the power of his office to reinforce that hatred. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, if you’re OK with this, you are no patriot; you are not a person who rejects fascism. It’s really that simple.

SEE ALSO:

Feds Raid Home Of Rep. Ilhan Omar Claiming Immigration Fraud

Trump Wants To Send Ilhan Omar And Rashida Tlaib ‘Back Where They Came From.’ So…Minnesota And Michigan?