Trump administration investigates Ilhan Omar’s citizenship, report says
The administration of US President Donald Trump is investigating Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in a probe that could seek to revoke her US citizenship and lead to her deportation, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter.
The investigation is partly focused on how Omar obtained citizenship after arriving in the United States as a refugee from Somalia, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Investigators are reviewing her family’s immigration records and have issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, seeking testimony before a grand jury in Minnesota.
Omar’s office dismissed the investigation as baseless, according to the report. The congresswoman has previously denied committing immigration fraud.
Investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father altered immigration documents concerning her age, stating that she was 17 rather than 18 when her father applied for citizenship.
The inquiry centres on whether this allowed her to obtain citizenship through her father instead of submitting a separate application.
Omar’s father died in 2020, complicating efforts to establish who may have provided inaccurate information.
The Journal reported that Homeland Security Investigations examined a similar allegation during former President Joe Biden’s administration but did not pursue it because of insufficient evidence of fraud.
The report comes days after federal agents searched Omar’s home under a judicially authorised warrant as part of what the Department of Homeland Security described as an ongoing federal investigation.
According to people familiar with the search, agents seized her passport, mobile phone, personal computers and notebooks.
The search took place weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. Omar, a prominent progressive Democrat, is seeking a fifth term representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.
Omar arrived in the United States in 1995 after spending time in a refugee camp in Kenya and became a US citizen in 2000.
She has faced repeated criticism from Trump and his allies over her Somali background and immigration history.
The newspaper did not report that a lawsuit had been filed to revoke Omar’s citizenship.
Such action would require court proceedings; the investigation itself does not revoke citizenship or authorise deportation.