Federal agents search Omar home in criminal investigation
Federal agents have searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Monday morning as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — carried out the search, according to The Associated Press, citing people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Justice Department (DOJ) confirmed in a Monday statement to the AP that HSI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant in the Washington, D.C. area but declined to provide details about the investigation.
“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the DOJ said in its statement.
The search comes nearly a month after White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed a federal criminal investigation involving Omar.
President Trump and other prominent allies have levied numerous allegations against the congresswoman over her immigration status, accusing the Somali native of obtaining U.S. citizenship fraudulently and openly seeking to have her removed from the country, which she has denied.
The administration announced it was investigating Omar last year for alleged immigration fraud after Trump and others claimed without evidence that Omar married her brother in order to obtain U.S. citizenship.
The progressive lawmaker has repeatedly clashed with Trump over his administration’s policies, and tensions heightened further after the president attacked Somalians in connection to Minnesota’s fraud scandal, accusing refugees from the African nation of “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota.”
The president also lashed out at Omar in a Cabinet meeting, calling her “garbage” while saying he did not want Somalians in the U.S. and at one point said Somalia “stinks.”
“We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said. “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’”
“His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs,” Omar said in response to Trump’s attacks, which were also condemned by officials in Minnesota.
Developing.
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