DHS Agents Search Ilhan Omar’s D.C. Home in Federal Probe

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched the Washington, D.C., home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in a pre-dawn raid on Monday, October 12, 2026, as part of a federal criminal investigation — an extraordinary escalation involving a sitting member of Congress that unfolded just three weeks before the midterm elections. The Department of Justice confirmed the action, saying HSI “executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice” and that the enforcement action was “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

The search was conducted under a warrant “signed by a judge,” according to White House border czar Tom Homan, who confirmed the operation on Fox Business Network without naming Omar as the target. Federal agents were seen carrying boxes from the residence.

What the Investigation Centers On

According to CBS News, which cited three sources familiar with the investigation, the probe centers on Omar’s immigration paperwork — specifically documents dating back to her childhood that were completed by her late father. HSI, the criminal investigative arm of ICE, has jurisdiction over offenses including immigration document fraud, identity fraud and immigration benefit fraud. Unlike ICE’s deportation-focused operations, HSI special agents conduct criminal investigations and execute federal search warrants.

The Justice Department did not specify the nature of the warrant. Citing two unnamed sources “close to the investigation,” Fox News reported the search was related to a criminal fraud investigation concerning Omar’s immigration paperwork. The Associated Press, as reported by MPR News, similarly reported that HSI agents conducted the search as part of a criminal investigation, citing two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

A Years-Long Political Target

The raid did not come without warning. For more than a decade, Omar — a frequent target of President Donald Trump and his allies — has faced accusations that she committed immigration fraud, including an unsubstantiated claim that she married her brother to help him obtain immigration status. Omar has consistently denied the allegations.

The Guardian reported that key administration figures had openly foreshadowed the investigation for months. In December, Trump accused Omar of having “married her brother” and said she “should be thrown the hell out of our country.” Days later, Homan said, “We’re pulling the records now,” referring to Omar. In March, Vice President JD Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that “we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud” and said he had discussed “remedies” with top Trump aide Stephen Miller. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that there was an ongoing investigation and that “something’s going to happen.”

At a rally on Saturday, two days before the search, Trump attacked Omar by name and added that Vance “and our people are looking at it very strongly. Let’s see what happens.”

Omar Responds: “I Will Not Be Silenced”

In her first public comments after the raid, posted on X shortly after 11 a.m., Omar said she was safe and framed the search as political retribution.

“I’m ok,” she wrote. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

Her spokesperson, Jackie Rogers, called the raid “an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.”

“The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong,” Rogers said. “No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.”

Reaction Splits Along Party Lines

House Democratic leadership — Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar — called the raid “deeply disturbing” and said it “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”

Minnesota officials were blunter. Gov. Tim Walz wrote on X that “President Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election,” while Sen. Tina Smith described the administration’s focus on her state as a “bizarre obsession.”

“This is their corrupt playbook,” Smith said. “Use all the powers of the federal government to attack our leaders… And feed Trump’s longstanding obsession with Representative Omar.”

On the other side, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) appeared to celebrate the news. “ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING!” he wrote on social media, adding that “nobody is above the law.”

The Pre-Election Timing Question

The search landed within the traditional window in which the Justice Department avoids overt investigative steps that could influence an election. Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance flagged the timing, noting the raid came roughly three weeks before voters head to the polls.

“We are within the period before an election where DOJ doesn’t take overt steps in an investigation that might influence its outcome,” she wrote on X. “Another hard norm out the window.”

That concern sits at the center of a broader debate over the weaponization of federal law enforcement — a theme that has cut across both parties in recent years but that critics say has intensified in Trump’s second term. The search of a sitting Member of Congress’s home is a highly unusual and significant escalation.

It is also worth noting an unresolved legal question at the heart of the case: marriage fraud is a felony, but it carries a five-year statute of limitations, and Omar and her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, formally divorced in 2017. Reporting has also raised the possibility of denaturalization, though Omar received citizenship via her parents as a child.

Context: A Community Under Scrutiny

As the most prominent Somali-American in U.S. politics, Omar has faced years of racist attacks from the president and his supporters. At Saturday’s rally, Trump said of Somalia that “all they have is crime and squalor,” and two days earlier wrote that Minnesota “is being taken over by Somali Immigrants” — even though the vast majority of Somali-Americans in the state are U.S. citizens. In December, the president referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage.”

Omar, who along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib became one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress in 2019, represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Minneapolis. She was first elected in 2018 and re-elected to a fourth term in November 2024.

What to Watch

The central questions remain unanswered: What evidence, if any, supports the criminal investigation, and will it produce charges? How will the Justice Department reconcile an overt investigative step so close to an election with its longstanding norms? And how will the search shape the final weeks of a midterm campaign in which immigration enforcement and the scope of executive power are already defining issues?

Omar has said she has not been contacted in connection with any investigation. For now, the raid has transformed a long-running political feud into a live federal criminal matter — and placed the question of how far the government may go in pursuing a sitting lawmaker squarely before voters.