U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar announced Wednesday that she will move out of her Washington, D.C., residence that federal agents searched last week, stating that the attention surrounding the raid has made her feel unsafe.
In her first interview since the search, the Minnesota Democrat told MS NOW that she is “confident in the fact that I didn’t do anything wrong” regarding the federal investigation into potential fraud in her family’s immigration paperwork.
The search was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents on the morning of October 12, approximately three weeks before the midterm elections. Omar recounted being awakened around 6 a.m. by agents knocking on her door with a warrant.
The agents searched the home for four to five hours and seized 17 items, including phones, notebooks, a Somali language children’s book, and a vintage camera her husband had received as a gift.
“Obviously, I can’t continue to live there,” Omar said in the interview, citing her public address and ongoing death threats. “It’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids visiting off and on, having people track them”.
According to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity, federal authorities are examining potential fraud in her family’s immigration paperwork and have issued grand jury subpoenas to some of her relatives.
Omar, who was born in Somalia and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, questioned the premise of the investigation. “It would be a huge undertaking to, I suppose, indict a 12-year-old for so cleverly conspiring to defraud immigration services to come to the United States,” she said. “I’m sure there are a lot of smart 12-year-olds, but that seems like a leap”.
The Justice Department has released few details about the case, confirming only that it is an ongoing criminal investigation. In a social media statement following the raid, Omar called the search “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement”.
The search drew sharp condemnation from congressional Democrats, who questioned the timing given the Justice Department’s longstanding practice of avoiding overt investigative actions involving candidates close to an election. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top Democrats called the search “deeply disturbing”.
Omar described the agents as “intrusive but polite,” noting that they logged the items they took and returned everything else to its place. She also said she declined to sign a paper waiving certain rights she has as a member of Congress under the Speech or Debate Clause.
Omar is seeking reelection in a heavily Democratic district centered in Minneapolis and is expected to retain her seat. No charges have been announced against her.
