Ilhan Omar said Wednesday that she will move out of her Washington, D.C., home after federal agents searched it last week, a decision she tied to feeling unsafe after the early morning visit. She said Homeland Security investigators came to her door around 6 a.m. with a warrant and stayed for four or five hours.
Omar said investigators took 17 items from the home, including phones, notebooks, a Somali language children's book and a vintage camera her husband had received as a gift. She said the agents were intrusive but polite, and she repeated that she is confident she did nothing wrong.
The search has put fresh attention on an investigation into potential fraud in Omar's family's immigration paperwork. A person briefed on the case said grand jury subpoenas have been issued to some of her relatives, but federal authorities have shared few details beyond saying it is a criminal investigation.
The timing gives the case added weight. It comes weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms, while Omar is running for reelection in a deep blue district centered in Minneapolis and is expected to keep her seat. The search also drew sharp condemnation from congressional Democrats, turning what might have stayed a quiet federal matter into a public fight around a sitting member of Congress.
That fight is sharpened by Omar's own history. She came to the United States with her family at age 12 after they obtained asylum and became a U.S. citizen in 2000, making her response to the fraud inquiry especially pointed: she said it would be a huge undertaking to indict a 12-year-old for conspiring to defraud immigration services. The unresolved question is not whether she will leave the Washington home; it is what, if anything, federal investigators believe they have left to prove.
