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Federal agents searched the Washington home of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar before dawn on Monday under a court-approved warrant. Multiple U.S. outlets report the search forms part of a criminal investigation into immigration paperwork her late father filed when she was a child.
Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived around 6 a.m. The Justice Department confirmed it had secured the warrant and described the action as “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” NBC News, citing a person familiar with the case, said the probe has lasted years and involves whistleblowers. The New York Post, citing two sources, reported that it centers on alleged false statements her father may have made in the family’s immigration papers.
The father’s record
Nur Omar Mohamed died in 2020. He was a colonel in the Somali National Army under Siad Barre and served in the Ogaden War. A 2020 obituary in Sahan Journal described him as a colonel who led a regiment. Omar has described him as an educator who trained teachers.
Barre’s forces conducted a systematic campaign against the Isaaq in the late 1980s in what is now Somaliland. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and large parts of Hargeisa were destroyed.
That history is relevant under U.S. law. Refugee status is barred for anyone who ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in persecution, and applicants are required to disclose military service. If Mohamed concealed or misrepresented his service, or any role in abuses, the family’s refugee grant could be open to challenge. Because Omar derived her citizenship through his naturalization in 2000, when she was 17, her status could be affected as well.
Investigators have not publicly identified the specific statements under review. It is not known what Mohamed disclosed on the original refugee application. No evidence has been released showing he personally took part in atrocities, and Snopes has reported finding no evidence he committed war crimes.
Questions also persist about his name. Omar has referred to him publicly as Nur Omar Mohamed. A 2013 Father’s Day post, later deleted, called him “Nur Said.” In 2016, Alpha News reported his legal name as Nur Said Elmi Mohamed. The Daily Caller later reported that the marriage certificate of a relative living in the United Kingdom lists her father as Nur Said Elmi.
Critics claim the family entered the United States under a different identity, and that the name “Elmi” connects Omar to her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Omar’s office has said “Nur Said” was a nickname. Somali naming practice builds names from a father’s and grandfather’s given names, so multiple versions of the same man’s name are common. No released record has established that a different identity was used in the refugee filings, and no outlet has reported that the warrant targets this issue.
The warrant and process
A search warrant is not a criminal charge. A judge must find probable cause that evidence of a crime exists at the location, and the supporting affidavit remains sealed. A source told CNN that senior Justice Department leadership approved the search even though the midterm elections are three weeks away.
Criminal charges for naturalization fraud carry a ten-year statute of limitations. Civil denaturalization has none. Because the relevant filings date to the 1990s, a civil case is the more realistic path. In such a proceeding, the government must prove its case by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence.
Why HSI, not the FBI
Investigations of sitting members of Congress usually fall to the FBI, which handles most public-corruption cases. HSI’s lead role signals that this is being treated as an immigration case rather than one about Omar’s conduct in office.
HSI is the criminal investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It holds jurisdiction over immigration document, identity and benefit fraud, and unlike ICE’s deportation units, its agents conduct criminal investigations and execute search warrants. The records at the center of the case are the Department of Homeland Security’s own files. Border czar Tom Homan has said an HSI fraud investigator reviewed Omar’s immigration file. The Justice Department secured the warrant and would handle any prosecution.
The choice is not without controversy. HSI answers to DHS leadership. Secretary Markwayne Mullin publicly asserted that Omar committed fraud before any charge was filed, and Homan has said an HSI investigator concluded fraud was involved.
Other long-running claims
For years, critics have alleged that Omar’s 2009 marriage to British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was a sham and that he is her brother. Omar has called the allegation “absurd and offensive.” No evidence supporting it has been made public.
Minnesota Republicans have also pressed her over the 2020 MEALS Act, which they say weakened safeguards later exploited in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud. This year, she did not appear before a state House committee or respond to its requests, and a subpoena attempt failed after Democrats on the panel voted against it. She has not been charged in that case.
Her original 2024 financial disclosure listed household assets of up to $30 million, largely in her husband’s businesses. She later amended that filing to under $100,000, citing an accounting error.
Reaction
Omar said the search was an attempt to “weaponize federal law enforcement” and the latest escalation in a decade of attacks by President Trump. House Democratic leaders called it “deeply disturbing.”
Omar’s response contrasts with her own words in March 2023, when Donald Trump was indicted in New York. “Our democracy rests on the rule of law,” she said then, adding that when anyone is suspected of a crime, the justice system investigates, charges and convicts them with due process. She also wrote that “no one is above the law,” and warned that political interference in a criminal investigation was a hallmark of democratic decline. Republicans have turned her phrase back on her. Rep. Nancy Mace responded to Monday’s search by writing “NO ONE is above the law,” and Tom Homan used the same words in September. Trump, for his part, called his own prosecutions political persecution.
