(AFP) – US federal agents searched the Washington home of Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Monday as part of a criminal investigation, officials said, marking a dramatic escalation in President Donald Trump’s confrontation with the outspoken lawmaker. The search was conducted by agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of US immigration enforcement, according to Fox News, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The operation, just three weeks before Omar seeks re-election in the November 3 midterms, raised concerns about longstanding Justice Department practices intended to prevent law enforcement actions from influencing elections. The cable network reported that the operation was linked to a criminal fraud investigation concerning immigration paperwork submitted on behalf of the Somali-born congresswoman by her late father when she was a child.
Trump’s border enforcement chief Tom Homan told Fox News he was unwilling to give details ahead of any official announcement but confirmed that an “investigation was ongoing for a while” and that “there was a warrant executed this morning.” US media quoted the Justice Department confirming that agents had carried out a court-authorized search in the Washington area, but officials did not identify Omar or disclose the nature of the investigation. The search reportedly began around 6:00 am. Video footage apparently taken by a member of the public and posted to X showed several agents wearing HSI jackets outside Omar’s Washington residence.
Omar, 44, is a leftist Democrat and fierce critic of Trump, particularly his administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigration. The Republican president has repeatedly clashed with Omar, who came to the United States from Somalia as a child and has frequently been the target of his political attacks.
In September, Homan said that Omar was the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, but again declined to provide details. Omar said at the time that Homeland Security officials had not contacted her about any investigation, dismissing the allegations against her as politically motivated attacks. There was no immediate public response from Omar to Monday’s search. AFP has sought comment from her office and the Trump administration.
But Xochitl Hinojosa, a former director of public affairs at the Justice Department, criticized the timing of the search. “There’s a longstanding rule at DOJ that you don’t take overt actions like this before an election, especially when there’s a candidate on the ballot,” she wrote on X. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on X that the “precedent set by this action is chilling,” warning that raids targeting political candidates shortly before elections could become more common.
Omar was first elected to Congress in 2018 and represents a district including Minneapolis, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States. She is a member of the group of left-wing Democratic lawmakers known as “The Squad,” who have been among Trump’s most vocal opponents in Congress.
No charges against Omar were announced in connection with Monday’s search. Trump and his Republican allies have for years argued that non-citizens vote in significant numbers in US elections, a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment and deportation. But studies consistently find non-citizen voting to be too rare an offense to have affected the outcome of any federal election. An election fraud database kept by the conservative Heritage Foundation, dating back decades, contains just 1,619 cases of election-related offenses — of which non-citizen voting makes up a tiny 5.5 percent.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
