Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C.-area home was raided by federal agents in a predawn search Monday.
Homeland Security Investigations, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security that conducts criminal probes, “executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to multiple media outlets. “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”
The statement did not specify whether the warrant was related to Omar and did not provide further information about the nature of the investigation, according to the Associated Press.
Omar criticized the raid as an attempt by the Trump administration “to target political enemies and weaponize 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,” she wrote in a social media post hours after the raid.
Capital B has reached out to Omar’s office for comment.
The search took place 22 days before Election Day. Omar is the Democratic incumbent and represents Minnesota’s 5th District, including Minneapolis. Justice Department protocol cautions against overt law enforcement actions in the weeks before an election that could influence public opinion
The raid is just the latest incident in a long history of the incumbent congresswoman being the focus of the Trump administration’s ire.
As one of the first two Muslim-American women in the House and the first African refugee to be elected to Congress, she has been under scrutiny since she was elected in 2018. She’s also part of the “Squad” of progressive lawmakers who took office in 2019. All are women of color, and Omar was among the members who survived a losing streak in 2024.
Omar has been one of the loudest congressional critics of Trump’s immigration crackdown, especially since enforcement operations began in Minnesota. She has said that the administration is “terrorizing a community” and that “every single” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent “should be out of Minnesota.”
Another core disagreement has been over Trump’s moves to cut or freeze foreign aid programs, including work by the United States Agency for International Development. Omar has said that such work is popular “not just with Democrats, but with Republicans.”
The president has often made derogatory comments about Omar’s background. In 2025, he described her and Somali migrants as “garbage” and said that they should leave the country; Omar responded by saying that his “obsession” with her is “creepy.”
Earlier this year, Trump said the DOJ and Congress are “looking at” the congresswoman. And last week, Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Minnesota “is being taken over by Somali Immigrants.” Trump repeated his personal attacks on Omar this weekend during a campaign speech for Tennessee Republican candidates.
In 2023, the Republican-controlled House voted along party lines to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over past remarks she made about Israel. Omar suggested that her Republican colleagues were bowing to pressure from Trump, who was running for reelection and had already frequently impugned her. In 2019, Trump criticized her at a campaign rally and the crowd began chanting, “Send her back!”
Born in Somalia, Omar and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was 8. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the U.S. in the 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.
At a town hall in Minneapolis in January, a man sprayed her with an unknown substance as she spoke about her desire to abolish ICE.
“Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she told the crowd. Later on X, she added: “I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”
In May, the man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Read More:
