The Trump administration had long signaled it was building a case against Rep. Ilhan Omar over alleged immigration violations. Monday’s raid of her Washington, D.C., home marked an extraordinary step in those efforts. Led by agents from Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, the court-approved search came after White House officials had said for months ...

Ilhan Omar during a press conference following a visit to Karmel Mall in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.

Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

The Trump administration had long signaled it was building a case against Rep. Ilhan Omar over alleged immigration violations. Monday’s raid of her Washington, D.C., home marked an extraordinary step in those efforts.

Led by agents from Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, the court-approved search came after White House officials had said for months that the Minnesota Democrat was under investigation.

Though initial news of the raid offered few details, reporting in the days since has added important information about the nature and scope of the federal government’s probe. Here’s what to know about where the investigation came from, and where it may be going.

Our reporting shows

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said earlier this week it obtained a “judicially authorized search warrant” by the agency to search Omar’s home in Washington, D.C. The agency said the search was part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.” Homeland Security Investigations agents took part in the search but on Thursday referred further questions to the DOJ.

A source familiar with the investigation said officials confiscated Omar’s cell phone, laptop, notebooks and passport and that some of her family members have been subpoenaed, including Omar’s sister. The source said authorities have not subpoenaed her children or her husband, Tim Mynett.

Since President Donald Trump’s first term, he has been promising to “send her back,” a campaign that has intensified as the administration has focused on fraud and the Somali community in Minnesota.

Rep. Tom Emmer, one of Omar’s chief enemies in Congress, unveiled a bill earlier this year that seeks to denaturalize U.S. citizens if they are convicted of fraud. He has also said his bill applies to marriage fraud.

The back story

Omar was born in Somalia, and her family fled the civil war there before eventually arriving in Minnesota in 1997, when Omar was 14 years old.

Much of the Republican focus on Omar has been looking into an unproven allegation that’s followed her throughout her political career — that she married her brother and committed immigration fraud.

White House officials spoke with certainty early in the year that the congresswoman may have committed immigration fraud and that an investigation was underway.

“We’re trying to figure out ... what are the legal remedies now that we know she’s committed immigration fraud,” Vice President JD Vance said on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson’s show in March. “How do you go after her? How do you investigate her? How do you build a case necessary to get some justice for the American people?”

Earlier this year, Trump said the Justice Department and Congress were also “looking at” Omar’s finances. The House Oversight Committee launched a probe asking Mynett to provide financial documents for his companies after the valuation of the companies he co-owned made a significant jump in her congressional disclosures.

Omar amended her financial disclosure forms and cited an accounting error for the mistake and a congressional ethics watchdog later cleared her of the errors on her financial disclosure form.

But this week District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said her office was also investigating Omar’s financial disclosures and dismissed the congressional ethics watchdog’s earlier decision.

The conversation

Monday’s raid drew cheers from the right and skepticism from Democrats and independent observers.

Omar called the search “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” she said in a statement Monday. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced,” she said.

She echoed her determination to not be silenced in a fundraising email on Tuesday. On Thursday, a spokesperson called the investigation “an extraordinary abuse of power.”

“This is politically motivated and an escalation of Trump’s personal vendetta against her lasting over a decade. He has lied about her family, about her immigration history, and about her love of this country,” the spokesperson said. “But the truth is that Trump’s push to strip her of her citizenship and deport her has no basis in the law and has no precedent. This isn’t a legitimate law enforcement action — it is an authoritarian move to silence an opponent right before an election where he and his party will be rejected by Americans in historic proportions.”

What comes next

The federal raid came just weeks before the November election, which former federal prosecutors say largely breaks from legal norms to not conduct major investigations or raids on candidates 60 days before an election in most cases.

But because authorities decided to move on the investigation before the election, it could mean they have serious evidence.

“I think we have to entertain the possibility that there is some evidence that we are not aware of, about her coming into the country,” said Doug Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in Minnesota under the Carter and Reagan administrations.

The Trump administration can’t unilaterally strip Omar of her citizenship. The Justice Department would need federal courts to find that Omar herself broke laws, which has not been proven.

The investigation could energize Democrats in Minnesota, who have largely come out to support Omar in light of the raids. Omar’s campaign said the congresswoman has seen a “huge windfall in fundraising” since the raid.

“I think this is exactly what Republicans in Minnesota are afraid Donald Trump would do, which is to make this election about him instead of the issues they are trying to put front and center in Minnesota,” said former DFL House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler.

—Sarah Nelson of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.