Agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have executed a search warrant at the home in Washington of Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the most despised and targeted by Donald Trump for years. For federal agents to do something like this to a member of Congress is very unusual, but to do it just three weeks before the elections is almost unprecedented. There are no written rules, but the Department of Justice always avoids any measures of this caliber in the two months leading up to an election, precisely to avoid any perception of political interference or meddling.
The operation at the congresswoman's residence in Minnesota's capital took place after the Department of Homeland Security itself had acknowledged that they were investigating Omar for alleged irregularities in her family's immigration documents and procedures. As recently reported by The New York Times, investigators have also expanded their scope to analyze her campaign finances, interactions with a foreign national, and accounts. The search warrant mentions a series of potential immigration offenses, including false statements and document fraud, as well as a general charge of conspiracy, according to various sources who have informed the media. But it relates to the paperwork submitted by her parents when she was a child.
"I am fine. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to attack political enemies and to use federal law enforcement as a weapon. For ten years, Trump has attacked me with unfounded lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. They will not silence me," the congresswoman wrote on her social media. Like all her colleagues in the lower chamber, she is up for reelection on November 3.
"The raid on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's residence by the Trump Administration is deeply disturbing and raises serious doubts about the continued corrupt instrumentalization of the federal government against Donald Trump's adversaries. For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly attacked Congresswoman Omar with vile personal insults and baseless accusations. Now, less than 30 days before the midterm elections, their violent machinery of mass deportations has stormed into the home of a duly elected congresswoman and her family. The American people deserve transparency, and we will demand full accountability for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice's excessive abuse of power," Democratic leaders in Congress denounced in a joint statement.
Past in refugee camps
The politician, born in Somalia, fled with her family from the civil war. In the mid-1990s, after passing through refugee camps in Kenya, she arrived as a refugee in the U.S. and grew up and was educated in Minnesota, where the bulk of the Somali community resides. She is the first woman of color to win a seat from that state and one of the only two Muslims in history to reach Congress, where she has become one of President Trump's obsessions, who constantly attacks her. The repertoire is extensive: he says she is stupid, that her IQ is very low, that she is corrupt and has enriched herself by stealing from citizens. That she is a crybaby, that she hates the United States, and even that she is married to her own brother and that she should go back to "her country, which is not even a country and only has pirates". Omar has received hundreds of death threats and a few months ago was assaulted during an event.
Many of the president's political phobias converge in her. Women, whom he insults much more than men. Democrats, the Somali community, the state of Minnesota (where the outgoing governor was the vice presidential candidate with Kamala Harris). But many of the axes of these midterm legislative elections also revolve around these circumstances. Trump wants to convince his voters that all Somalis are criminals, illegal, or commit fraud. That there is a massive cover-up by the Democrats to solidify patronage networks. And that ICE operations, which were suspended in that state after the point-blank shooting deaths of American citizens, are essential.
This is precisely one of the things the opposition feared could start happening in the lead-up to the elections. Raids, accusations, or even arrests of candidates or their teams. Just a few weeks ago, Markwayne Mullin, the Secretary of Homeland Security appointed by Trump after dismissing his predecessor before the summer, suggested that the final outcome of the investigations could be the deportation of the congresswoman.
The U.S. has fairly clear unwritten rules on when and how to conduct operations of this nature during an election period. It is justified if there are risks of flight or evidence destruction and other circumstances, but in general, they try to avoid it. Just like, for example, Trump never received his sentence after being found guilty by a court in 2024 because he won the election again. The judge did not disclose the sentence, the Department of Justice halted the investigations, and even the special prosecutor handling his cases lost his job.
Ironically, back then Trump and his lawyers clung to the unwritten rule of a truce in the 60 days before the vote, accusing the Department of Justice with Joe Biden as president of politicizing the cases. His personal lawyers, who now lead the Department of Justice, argued that the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, violated the rule by filing new court documents in September 2024, two months before the presidential elections, to support the allegations that Trump had conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 elections.
"For years, the Trump Administration has launched slanderous attacks against Congresswoman Omar. This morning, the Administration sent federal officials to raid her home. We cannot and will not accept this unprecedented abuse of power. I stand with her," criticized her friend Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the main voices of the progressive wing of the Democrats.