A week that opened with federal agents at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s door closed with a Cabinet secretary confirming that her home was not the only address they visited.
Agents searched the Minnesota Democrat’s Washington, D.C., residence on Monday. The case dates to mid-September, when border czar Tom Homan first disclosed it.
Days before the search, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the inquiry extended beyond Omar’s disputed 2009 marriage.
He added that removal proceedings could follow if investigators prove wrongdoing.
Omar has faced claims for years that she married her own brother to bring him into the country. She has denied them, calling the allegations “absurd and offensive.”
The raid came as part of a probe into immigration papers that Omar’s father filled out for her when she was a child.
Omar has labeled the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt.
President Trump previously said he knew nothing about the case. Asked for his reaction after the search, he told reporters: “I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ.”
On Friday, Mullin, 49, sat down on The Charlie Kirk Show with hosts Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff. He shared one new fact and held back the rest.
“All I can say is one, yes we served a warrant, I can’t say that it was on a specific person or not but she wasn’t or it wasn’t the only place we served a warrant there was multiple other warrants served on that same day,” he said.
Mullin did not say which other locations agents visited. He did say where he expects the case to go.
“We had a judge sign it, and we expect to be able to take the case to a grand jury,” he said. Omar has not been charged with a crime.
The secretary also rejected the political-targeting charge.
“But I will tell you, we wouldn’t move forward, and President Trump didn’t want to move forward either, unless we knew that it couldn’t be politically driven,” he said.
He closed the point with a defense of the evidence. “This was about enforcing once again our nation’s laws, and it’s a strong case.”
Former President Barack Obama answered on Sunday with a post on X.
He wrote that “It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.” He continued: “But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”
Obama then laid out his version of the facts.
“Congresswoman Omar came to this country with her father when she was 12 years old. Five years later, her father became a naturalized citizen,” he wrote.
He said age decides the outcome.
A child who is 18 when a parent naturalizes must apply separately, Obama wrote, while a 17-year-old becomes a citizen automatically. In his account, Omar was 17.
Obama claimed investigators are pursuing deportation on the “theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized and therefore is not a citizen.”
He went on: “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.”
He cited other cases as well.
“Under President Trump, the Justice Department has repeatedly gone after those he considers his political enemies — from the Attorney General of New York to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve,” Obama wrote.
He said those efforts ended in stalled trials or dismissals.
His post ended with a warning.
“The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views,” he wrote. “Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.”
Omar, a member of the progressive Squad, ranks among the president’s most outspoken critics on Capitol Hill. She has drawn his attacks since his first term.
The search followed an earlier law enforcement action by less than seven weeks. Minneapolis police raided the apartment that Omar’s son, Adnan Hirsi, 20, shares with a roommate.
Officers seized guns and ammunition and arrested the roommate, 22-year-old Abdulrahman Abdi, on a weapons charge after finding a firearm in his impounded car.
Hirsi has not been accused of wrongdoing.
