{"id":925929,"date":"2026-10-12T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925929\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T22:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:48:11","slug":"ice-raids-home-of-democratic-us-congresswoman-ilhan-omar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925929\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE raids home of Democratic US congresswoman Ilhan Omar"},"content":{"rendered":"

US authorities have conducted a pre-dawn raid on the Washington-area home of Democratic US representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump who has been the target of political insults by the Republican president.<\/p>\n

A person familiar with the investigation said it was related to alleged immigration fraud, and part of the probe concerned the Somali-born politician’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child.<\/p>\n

“Today in the Washington, DC area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorised search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in an email.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Investigations is part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

Speaking outside a US military air base, Donald Trump told reporters officials were looking “very carefully” into Ms Omarr after the raid.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always known her to be totally crooked”, he said.<\/p>\n

He said the congresswoman was a “complainer” from a “non-country” before departing for Ohio, where he will host a rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Agents of Homeland Security Investigations were seen in front of Ilhan Omar’s home on Monday morning, US time. (Reuters: Annabelle Gordon)<\/p>\n

Ms Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponise federal law enforcement”.<\/p>\n

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border tsar”, told Fox Business Network the Justice Department was leading the investigation with the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

Mr Homan declined to discuss the specifics of an ongoing criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

Democrats accuse Trump of abusing power<\/p>\n

The raid was carried out a little more than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, when Mr Trump’s party will be trying to defend its narrow majorities in the US Congress.<\/p>\n

Ms Omar, a prominent progressive who is running for re-election, represents a safe Democratic district.<\/p>\n

She won re-election in 2024 by a margin of 50 percentage points.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ilhan Omar has previously described Donald Trump’s continuous criticism of her as “creepy”. (Reuters: Nathan Howard)<\/p>\n

Minnesota Democrats condemned the raid.<\/p>\n

“Americans see this for what it is,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

“President Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election.”<\/p>\n

Justice Department policy bars federal prosecutors and agents from timing any action to affect the outcome of any election or benefiting a candidate or political party.<\/p>\n

The department has historically avoided taking investigative steps against political candidates within about 60 days of an election.<\/p>\n

‘Creepy obsession’<\/p>\n

Ms Omar has faced political insults from Mr Trump, who has cast the Somali American community as a threat to Minnesota in a burst of anti-Somali and anti-Muslim rhetoric.<\/p>\n

She previously called Mr Trump’s focus on her an “unhealthy and creepy obsession”.<\/p>\n

Last week, Mr Trump called Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the US Senate \u2014 Abdul El-Sayed, who is \u2060Muslim \u2014 a “RADICAL Extremist” and “Terrorist Sympathizer” while offering support for Mr El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.<\/p>\n

Civil rights advocates have criticised Mr Trump’s rhetoric toward minorities and immigrants, including when he previously called Somalis “garbage.”<\/p>\n

Mr Trump in February said Ms Omar and Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who is also Muslim, should be “institutionalised” and sent back to “where they came from”.<\/p>\n

Both congresswomen had criticised Mr Trump during his State of the Union address as he touted his administration’s hardline immigration crackdown and its immigration enforcement actions.<\/p>\n

Ms Omar has said she and her family have faced death threats, which she attributes to “hateful political rhetoric”, especially from Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

Last month, a Minnesota man who squirted vinegar on Ms Omar was sentenced to one year and two months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a federal official.<\/p>\n

Anthony James Kazmierczak admitted to attacking Ms Omar because he disagreed with her progressive political views.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US authorities have conducted a pre-dawn raid on the Washington-area home of Democratic US representative Ilhan Omar of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57097,2490,43,105197,493384,366511,5387,44,9339,41,39,42,40,493383,5071,20291],"class_list":["post-925929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-ilhan-omar","tag-immigration-raid","tag-midterm","tag-minnesota","tag-news","tag-republicans","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-congresswoman","tag-us-politics","tag-us-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}