A federal search of Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Washington home has intensified President Donald Trump’s feud with one of his most outspoken critics, amid what officials described as a criminal investigation.
Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz accused Mr Trump of “abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election.”
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Ms Omar said she was “ok” after the early-morning operation, but alleged that the administration was targeting her only three weeks before she seeks re-election in the 3 November midterm elections.
Ilhan Omar has been a fierce critic of the Trump administration
The search was carried out by agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of US immigration enforcement. Mr Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, said it formed part of a longstanding probe.
“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.”
The raid prompted an angry response from Democrats, who accused Mr Trump of using the machinery of government to pursue political opponents.
Fox News reported that the search was connected to a criminal fraud inquiry involving immigration paperwork submitted for the Somali-born congresswoman by her late father when she was a child.
Asked about Ms Omar several hours later, the president said she was being investigated “very carefully.”
“I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me. I think she’s a terrible person, just a complainer. She comes from a country that is a non-country,” he told reporters at the White House.
The Justice Department said in a statement that agents had executed a “judicially authorized search warrant” in the Washington area. Officials did not name Ms Omar or provide details about the investigation.
“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” prosecutors added.
Ms Omar, 44, is a leftist Democrat and one of Mr Trump’s most persistent critics, particularly over his administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
The Republican president has repeatedly clashed with Ms Omar, who came to the United States from Somalia as a child and has often been singled out in his political attacks.
Political backlash
Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team described the search as “deeply disturbing” and questioned what they called “the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”
Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace said Ms Omar should lose her US citizenship and be deported if investigators proved fraud.
“NO ONE is above the law,” she wrote on X.
The timing was also condemned by Xochitl Hinojosa, a former director of public affairs at the Justice Department.
“There’s a longstanding rule at DOJ that you don’t take overt actions like this before an election, especially when there’s a candidate on the ballot,” she wrote on X.
Democrats accused the administration of weaponising federal agencies
Ms Omar said in September that Homeland Security officials had not contacted her regarding any investigation. She rejected the allegations as politically motivated attacks.
First elected to Congress in 2018, she represents a district that includes Minneapolis, which is home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States.
She is also a member of “The Squad”, the group of left-wing Democratic lawmakers who have emerged as some of Mr Trump’s most vocal opponents in Congress.
No charges against Ms Omar had been announced in connection with the search.
