Federal agents seized DNA and a passport from Ilhan Omar’s Washington home in an immigration-fraud probe that sources say could test long-running claims she once married her brother, and her allies call it a political hit.
Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., residence last Monday as part of an immigration-fraud investigation tied to her family’s paperwork, Daily Mail reported.
Investigators took her cellphone. They also obtained her personal passport and DNA evidence. More than a dozen grand jury subpoenas went out, including to some of her relatives. Omar, 44, a Somali-born Minnesota Democrat and “Squad” member, has not been charged with any crime.
A source told the New York Post the DNA could supply crucial evidence on the old allegation that she married a brother to game immigration rules. Omar has rejected that claim as absurd and offensive and says she is the target of a politically motivated hunt.
Border Czar Tom Homan did not duck the stakes. In a Fox News interview on Saturday, he said investigators have a strong case and that denaturalization and deportation remain on the table if fraud in the naturalization process is proved.
Homan says the case is strong and the law still applies
Homan framed the work as ordinary enforcement, not a special carve-out for a member of Congress.
He told Fox News the process is long and tedious, but it has been done before. He said he has been involved in such investigations and that if the evidence points that way, denaturalization could follow.
"I've been told we have a strong case."
Homan said that on Fox News and added the administration will let the evidence lead.
"We'll let the evidence see where it leads. She'll be held to the same standard you and I are held. If she violated law then she'd be held accountable."
He also tied the probe to a wider posture. Deterrence, he said, is part of what this administration is doing. Asked about other possible offenses beyond immigration fraud, he answered, “I won't go there.”
Agents denied reports they had gone “dumpster diving” through Omar’s trash to collect material. How the DNA was obtained was not spelled out beyond that denial and the fact it is now in investigators’ hands.
Omar’s lawyers call it retribution; DOJ fires back
Omar’s legal team demanded the immediate return of property seized in the search. In a letter, her attorneys said there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.”
"This vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the President's chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar's constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers."
That is the defense line: politics, not paperwork. Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington rejected the letter’s claims and said it was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.”
Covington said department attorneys and law enforcement partners “complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do.” President Trump, after the search, said the matter sits with the Justice Department and denied personal involvement in the investigation.
"I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ," Trump said.
Obama frames a law-abiding critic under siege
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on X on Sunday and cast the probe as selective targeting of a political opponent. He wrote that government cannot single people out for their beliefs or speech, then said that is what the Trump administration is doing to the congresswoman from Minnesota.
"Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president."
Obama argued any administration willing to run “transparent efforts to intimidate someone” should outrage Americans no matter how they view Omar’s politics. He also offered his own account of her biography: arrival in the United States at age 12 and citizenship five years later through her father’s naturalization, while describing investigators’ theory as a claim she had actually been 18 at the relevant time.
That is a live dispute over paperwork and age, not a settled finding. No charging document, indictment, or lab report has been made public in the material available. The warrant text, the subpoenas’ full scope, the names of every relative served, and the chain of custody on the DNA were not released.
Minnesota politics already runs hot around crime and accountability
Omar’s base is the Twin Cities, where crime and official conduct stay in the news. A Minneapolis shooting that killed two people and wounded three officers underscored how raw public-safety fights remain in the metro she represents.
Separate coverage has tracked other local flashpoints, including a St. Paul police recovery of a stolen Suni Lee statue during a shots-fired call and a sexual harassment probe facing Saint Paul’s Democratic mayor over vulgar texts to city staffers.
Another Minnesota thread involves a former state senator sentenced to 16 months in federal prison after a child solicitation sting. None of those cases decide Omar’s immigration file. They do show why voters in her state already sort leaders by whether rules apply evenly.
What is proved so far, and what is not
Here is the verified core. A federal search hit Omar’s D.C. home last Monday. DHS officers and the FBI were tied to the operation. A phone was seized. A passport and DNA evidence were obtained. More than a dozen grand jury subpoenas issued, some to relatives. Omar is not charged. Her lawyers call the probe unlawful and political. DOJ says it followed court orders. Homan says the case is strong and that denaturalization is a real legal path if fraud is proved. A Post source says the DNA may matter to the brother-marriage allegation. Obama says the government is punishing speech.
Missing pieces remain large. Absolute calendar dates were not published in the seed reporting. The precise method of DNA collection, beyond the denial of trash searches, was not detailed. No public lab result shows what the DNA does or does not prove. No relative has been named in open court filings cited here. No prosecutor has announced a charging decision.
Immigration fraud and false statements in the naturalization process are serious federal matters when proved. So is the rule that members of Congress do not sit above the law. So is the reverse rule: investigations need evidence, process, and proof, not vibes and old grudges.
Homan’s line is the one that matches equal justice: same standard as everyone else, evidence first, accountability if the law was broken. Omar’s team insists the file is empty and the motive is revenge. DOJ says the letter attacking the probe is wrong on the facts. Trump says it is the department’s call.
Grand juries, warrants, passports, and DNA are not press releases. They are tools that either land on documents and biology or they do not. If the government has a clean fraud case, it should prove it in the open. If it does not, it should say so and stand down. What it cannot do is treat citizenship paperwork as optional for the powerful and mandatory for everyone else.
Equal enforcement is not intimidation, and political celebrity is not a shield from a fact pattern the evidence may yet confirm.
