Federal agents search Omar’s home in criminal investigation

Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Monday morning as part of an ongoing criminal investigation .

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — carried out the search, a Justice Department spokesperson told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network.

“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the Justice Department said in its statement.

The Hill has reached out to Omar’s office.

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.

The search comes nearly a month after White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed a federal criminal investigation involving Omar.

“If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law. So, I’ll leave it at that. We’ll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation,” Homan said during an appearance on Fox News.

HSI is an elite investigative unit with ICE that has traditionally been focused on combatting crime networks involved in human and weapons trafficking as well as other major crimes across borders, such as antiquities smuggling and cyber and financial crimes.

Republicans have lobbed allegations of widespread immigration fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community.

Several GOP voices have also relayed skepticism about one of Omar’s past marriages.

That includes Vice President Vance, who in May said, “You read the things about Ilhan Omar … who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law.”

Omar in the past has denied allegations — now roughly 10 years old that first circulated in right-wing media — that she married her brother.

The Justice Department has boosted its components focused on immigration fraud and also started a denaturalization campaign to rescind American citizenship from anyone who misrepresents details in applying for citizenship.

A member of the progressive crew “The Squad,” Omar came to the U.S. as a child with her family from Somalia as they sought asylum amid the civil war that spurred widespread displacement. She received citizenship in 2000.

President Trump and other prominent allies have levied numerous allegations against the congresswoman over her immigration status, accusing the Somali native of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship, which she has denied, and openly seeking to have her removed from the country.

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.

The progressive lawmaker has repeatedly clashed with Trump over his administration’s policies, and tensions heightened further after the president attacked Somali people in connection to Minnesota’s fraud scandal, accusing refugees from the African nation of “completely taking over the once great state of Minnesota.”

The president also lashed out at Omar in a Cabinet meeting, calling her “garbage” while saying he did not want Somali people in the U.S., and at one point he said Somalia “stinks.”

“We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said. “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’”

“His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs,” Omar said in response to Trump’s attacks, which were also condemned by officials in Minnesota.