Mamdani: citizenship ‘should not be weaponized’ against Omar

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) on Monday slammed the federal search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) Washington, D.C., home, saying that her citizenship “should not be weaponized” against her.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — carried out the search, a Justice Department (DOJ) spokesperson told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. The DOJ said it was part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

Mamdani lambasted what he said was the federal government using “the full force of the Department of Homeland Security against a sitting member of Congress for the offense of disagreeing with the White House.”

“The path to citizenship should not be weaponized against anyone, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, a naturalized American who swore an oath to this country — the same one that I took,” Mamdani wrote on the social platform X . “The promise of citizenship should not be contingent on someone agreeing with the federal government.”

Mamdani, who himself became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018 , referred to Omar’s citizenship status. The member of the progressive House crew “The Squad” entered the U.S. after her family sought asylum from Somalia amid its civil war. Omar received her citizenship in 2000.

She said she was “ok” following the raid, but she called the incident “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” she wrote on X. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

President Trump on Monday told reporters outside the White House that investigators are looking into Omar “very carefully.”

“I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” Trump said. “I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ. I have nothing to do with it.”

DOJ does not typically take major actions against candidates for office in the 60 days preceding an election. The midterm elections are in three weeks.

Lawmakers and Trump critics slammed the raid , with House Democratic leadership in a joint statement calling it “deeply disturbing” and that it raised questions about the weaponization of government.

“Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) likened the search to fascism.

“DHS raiding a member of Congress’s home is exactly what a fascist police state does,” she wrote on X . “This president should not be able to weaponize the federal government against political enemies. I stand with Ilhan.”

Omar entered Congress in 2018, among a wave of new Democratic lawmakers ushered in during Trump’s first term. She has been a longtime critic of the president, and he has levied numerous allegations against the congresswoman over her immigration status, accusing the Somali native of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship. Omar denies this claim.

The administration announced it was investigating Omar last year for alleged immigration fraud after Trump and others claimed without evidence that Omar married her brother in order to obtain U.S. citizenship.

Tensions between the two escalated after Trump attacked Minnesota’s Somali refugee community in connection with the state’s fraud scandal earlier this year.