Probe of Rep. Ilhan Omar aims to strip her of US citizenship, WSJ reports
Days after agents searched her home, the Wall Street Journal says the goal is to revoke Omar's citizenship and deport her. A Minnesota grand jury has subpoenaed relatives. Omar calls it political intimidation.
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The federal investigation into Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is aimed at building a case to revoke her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials and people familiar with the probe. More than a dozen subpoenas have been issued for testimony before a grand jury in Minnesota, including to some relatives. Homeland Security Investigations agents who searched her Washington-area home on Monday seized her passport, phone and computers, the newspaper reported.
According to Al Jazeera, the central question is whether Omar or her late father, who died in 2020, listed her age as 17 rather than 18 on immigration paperwork, allowing her to gain citizenship through him. Omar arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000. A similar allegation was reportedly examined under the Biden administration but not pursued for lack of evidence. Revoking citizenship would require court proceedings, and Omar has not been charged.
Omar rejected the investigation, writing on X that it was "an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement." Her office rejected the probe as baseless, Al Jazeera reported. Washington's U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who confirmed a separate inquiry into Omar's financial disclosures according to Newsweek, told Fox News that "if there was a crime that was committed, it will be prosecuted." President Donald Trump has said he had "nothing to do" with the search. Omar is seeking a fifth term in the Nov. 3 election.