Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was up in arms on Monday, October 12, after federal agents conducted a search of her home in Washington, D.C., referring to the act as an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement” by President Donald Trump. The lawmaker, who was originally born in Somalia, has been an outspoken critic of the president and has verbally jousted with him in statements made on social media.
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” Omar went on to write in a social media post. “I will not be silenced.” A spokesperson representing the Department of Justice spoke with TIME about the fiasco.
“Today in the Washington, D.C., area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” No additional details or explanations were provided to the left-leaning outlet.
As of this writing, the U.S. Congress is not in session. It is not clear if Omar was at her residence at the time of the raid, according to a report from TIME. A person close to the investigation stated that the search was related to alleged immigration fraud and was connected to an ongoing probe into the Somali-born immigrant’s paperwork that was filled out by her now deceased father when she was just a child.
This isn’t the first time that Omar’s immigration records have been the subject of controversy. Earlier this year, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) filed a subpoena of records related to Omar, who became a U.S. citizen at the age of 17 in 2000. During a podcast interview in March, Vice President JD Vance said the administration is fairly certain that Omar is guilty of immigration fraud.
“This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies. For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back,” a message from Omar’s office, which was published on X, went on to say about the raid.
“Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies,” it concluded. Folks on social media were quick to point out the congresswoman’s hypocrisy, seeing as she once stated that nobody was above the law.
"*" indicates required fields
In fact, one user, The Right to Bear Memes, created a post featuring her saying that very statement, reminding her that this truth applies to her as well, especially if there is sound reasoning behind the idea that she might have committed immigration fraud. One user shared a video of Omar claiming that she misses her home country and wants to live there again, with the caption, “We just want your dreams to come true.”