A new federal inquiry is examining whether Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s US citizenship could be revoked, a move that could ultimately expose the Minnesota congresswoman to deportation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, reported that the Trump administration is investigating how Omar secured citizenship after entering the United States as a refugee from Somalia.
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Investigators are reviewing her family’s immigration records and have issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to relatives who were asked to testify before a grand jury in Minnesota, the Journal reported on Wednesday.
Omar’s office dismissed the investigation as baseless in comments to the Journal.
The report followed a raid by federal agents on Omar’s home, which her office characterised as an “unprecedented escalation” in the Trump administration’s actions against political opponents.
The search took place weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, when Republicans are fighting to maintain control of Congress. Omar is campaigning for a fifth term in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district.
The Department of Homeland Security said the search formed part of “an ongoing federal investigation”.
According to people familiar with the operation, agents seized Omar’s passport, mobile phone, personal computers and notebooks, the newspaper reported.
Omar came to the US in 1995 after spending time in a refugee camp in Kenya. She became a US citizen in 2000 and has previously denied allegations of immigration fraud.
The citizenship inquiry focuses in part on whether Omar or her late father changed her age on immigration documents, stating that she was 17 instead of 18 when her father applied for citizenship, the Journal reported.
Investigators are assessing whether the change enabled Omar to obtain citizenship through her father instead of completing a separate application, according to the newspaper.
Omar’s father died in 2020, making it more difficult for investigators to determine whether Omar misrepresented her own age or whether her father did so on her behalf. A former senior Justice Department immigration official told the Journal that the Trump administration’s case would depend on proving such a false statement.
The Journal said Homeland Security Investigations officials reviewed a similar allegation during the administration of former President Joe Biden but did not take action because they found insufficient evidence of fraud.
The newspaper did not report that anyone had filed a lawsuit seeking to strip Omar of her citizenship. Revocation would require court proceedings; the investigation itself cannot cancel her citizenship or authorise her deportation.
The Journal also reported that a nonpartisan congressional watchdog had previously cleared Omar of wrongdoing in connection with disclosures that overstated her assets.
Homeland Security Investigations, an agency within US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, conducted the search under what the department described as a “judicially authorized search warrant”.
On Monday morning, agents cordoned off the street outside Omar’s home and carried away boxes marked “Seized Property Evidence”.
Omar, a leading progressive Democrat, has endured years of criticism from Trump and his allies over her Somali origins and immigration history.
Several hours after the raid, Trump told reporters he had “nothing to do” with the operation, saying it was “really up to the DOJ [Justice Department]”.
