Why has search of Ilhan Omar’s home before US midterms caused controversy?

United States federal agents have searched the Washington, DC home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Muslim and a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, as part of an investigation that one source said was linked to alleged immigration fraud.

The predawn raid on Monday came three weeks before the US midterm elections on November 3, in which Omar is seeking a fifth term representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district.

Omar called the raid an attempt to “weaponise federal law enforcement”, while top Democrats said the timing raised “serious questions”.

So why has the search caused such alarm? Here’s what we know:

What happened?

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), executed what the US Department of Justice called a “judicially authorised search warrant”.

The department said only that it was part of “an ongoing federal investigation”.

The street around Omar’s home was blocked off on Monday morning, and agents were seen removing boxes labelled “Seized Property Evidence”.

Hours later, Trump told reporters he had “nothing to do” with the search, saying it was “really up to the DOJ [Justice Department]”.

What is Omar under investigation for?

Officially, it is unclear.

However, a person described as familiar with the investigation told the Reuters news agency that it relates to alleged immigration fraud, and that part of it concerns paperwork filled out by Omar’s late father when she was a child.

Omar fled Somalia’s civil war with her family when she was aged eight.

According to her House biography, the family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before moving to the United States in the 1990s. She became a citizen in 2000.

Conservative websites have for years alleged that she “married her brother” to commit immigration fraud, claims Omar has dismissed as “disgusting lies”.

US Vice President JD Vance said in March, without offering evidence, that the administration believed Omar “definitely committed immigration fraud”. Her office called the claim fabricated and defamatory.

Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that “something’s going to happen” in the case.

“If we can prove that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we’ll deport you,” he said.

Why is the raid’s timing controversial?

Justice Department policy usually avoids taking any action whose timing would appear to affect an election or benefit a candidate or party. In practice, therefore, the department has historically avoided overt investigative steps against candidates within about 60 days of a vote.

Randall Eliason, a law professor at George Washington University and former federal public corruption prosecutor, said the raid appeared to break with that practice, though there is no way to enforce the policy.

“The idea is to avoid even the appearance of any kind of interference by the Department of Justice with the political process,” he said.

The norm’s most famous test came in 2016. On October 28, 11 days before the presidential election, then-FBI Director James Comey told Congress that the bureau was examining newly discovered emails linked to its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Clinton has blamed this, in part, for her defeat. A 2018 review by the Justice Department’s inspector general found Comey’s conduct “extraordinary and insubordinate”.

Electorally, little appears to hang on the outcome. Omar represents a very safe Democratic seat covering Minneapolis, which she won in 2024 by 50 percentage points.

On November 3, she faces Republican Dalia al-Aqidi, an Iraq-born former journalist who has called Omar “pro-Hamas”, in a rematch of the 2024 race.

The search fits a wider pattern, however. During Trump’s second term, the Justice Department has charged several of his perceived political enemies, including Comey himself, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

What has Omar said?

She claims she is being targeted as one of Trump’s “political enemies”.

“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.”

Omar has previously described Trump’s focus on her as an “unhealthy and creepy obsession”, and says she and her family have received death threats that she blames on his rhetoric.

In early December last year, Trump took aim at the Somali community in Minnesota and called Somali immigrants “garbage“. “We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.”

In January, a man sprayed her with vinegar at a town hall in Minneapolis. Anthony James Kazmierczak, who admitted attacking her because he disagreed with her progressive views, was sentenced last month to 14 months in prison.

Trump, meanwhile, returned to Omar’s origins at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday this week.

“She comes from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet,” he said, as the crowd chanted: “Deport.”

What are Democrats and other critics saying?

That the raid on Omar’s home is an abuse of power.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, joined by Representatives Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, called the raid “deeply disturbing”.

Trump’s “mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family”, they said, promising to “deliver full accountability”.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Trump was “abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election”.

Few Republicans have commented publicly. One who did, Representative Nancy Mace, wrote that if fraud was proven, Omar “should be denaturalised and removed from this country”.

Questions have also been raised about internal checks. A person familiar with the investigation told Reuters the department consulted its Public Integrity Section, which has historically approved investigations of members of Congress, before the search.

The Trump administration has cut the Public Integrity Section to about two lawyers as part of the sweeping government cuts he introduced after taking office in January 2025. Before that, the unit had 35 to 40 full-time lawyers.