A federal raid at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home set off a new citizenship and power fight Monday, with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) accusing the Trump administration of using immigration enforcement to punish a political opponent.
The agents who entered Omar’s home came from Homeland Security Investigations. The agency is the investigative branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Justice Department placed the search inside an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.” Reuters reported, based on a person familiar with the inquiry, that the case involves alleged immigration fraud tied to forms Omar’s father completed when she was a child.
Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, became a U.S. citizen in 2000 after coming to the United States with a family that had sought asylum from Somalia’s civil war.
Mamdani became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018, and he used that shared status to frame the raid as a threat far beyond one member of Congress.
This morning, the federal government turned the full force of the Department of Homeland Security against a sitting member of Congress for the offense of disagreeing with the White House.
The path to citizenship should not be weaponized against anyone, including Rep. Ilhan Omar,… https://t.co/aoICn88auK
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 12, 2026
“The path to citizenship should not be weaponized against anyone, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, a naturalized American who swore an oath to this country — the same one that I took,” Mamdani wrote on X. “The promise of citizenship should not be contingent on someone agreeing with the federal government.”
Mamdani also wrote that Washington had turned “the full force of the Department of Homeland Security against a sitting member of Congress for the offense of disagreeing with the White House.”
Omar (D-MN) told followers she was “ok” after the search, then placed the raid inside what she called Trump’s decade of attacks on her.
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“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” Omar wrote on X. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”
Outside the White House, President Donald Trump denied controlling the Justice Department’s work while making clear his own view of Omar.
“I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” Trump told reporters. “I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ. I have nothing to do with it.”
.@POTUS on Ilhan Omar: "I understand they're looking at her very carefully. I've always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me… I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ — I have nothing to do with it." pic.twitter.com/v7rLg2oBD1
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 12, 2026
At a Republican campaign stop in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump folded Omar into a broader attack on Minnesota, Democrats and the state’s Somali community.
“Just look at what’s happening in the once great state of Minnesota. What a mess they have done,” Trump said. “And Ilhan, somebody was asking. I don’t know what they’re doing with it, but I can tell you this: she’s a disaster.”
Trump also said Omar comes from “one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.”
He then turned to Minnesota’s pandemic-era nutrition-program fraud case, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen and some members of the state’s Somali community were involved.
“They came over here. They had nothing. They came from a government that doesn’t exist,” Trump said. “They come from a part of the world that only knows how to kill each other.”
Trump also claimed Minnesota Democrats cheated in 2024, saying he believed he had won the state before “a rather large drop of votes” appeared.
🚨 President Trump is UNLOADING on Ilhan Omar and what Democrats have done to Minnesota — the crowd is SCREAMING "DEPORT! DEPORT!"
"She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military. All they do is SH00T each other. And she comes into our country and… pic.twitter.com/lwaTtoQihX
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 12, 2026
“They cheat like hell. Aside from everything else, they cheat on the elections,” he said.
House Democratic leaders accused the administration of sending federal power after an elected opponent less than a month before the midterms.
“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” top House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.
“Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”
Fellow “Squad” members Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also chimed in online.
“DHS raiding a member of Congress’s home is exactly what a fascist police state does,” Tlaib wrote on X. “This president should not be able to weaponize the federal government against political enemies. I stand with Ilhan.”
“For years, the Trump admin has launched slanderous attacks against Rep. Omar. This morning, the administration sent federal officials to raid her home,” AOC added. “We cannot and will not accept this unprecedented abuse of power. I stand with Ilhan.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) framed the raid as part of a larger effort to silence opposition.
“Trump is an authoritarian. He wants to intimidate his political opponents, the media and all those who disagree with him,” Sanders posted.
He followed by contrasting Trump’s attacks with Omar’s refugee-to-Congress story.
“Ilhan Omar came to America legally as a child refugee fleeing civil war, became a citizen and was elected to Congress. Trump is weaponizing the federal government to silence opposition. Fight back. Defend democracy.”
“Americans see this for what it is – President Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election,” Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz tweeted.
Omar first won her House seat in 2018, part of a new Democratic class elected during Trump’s first term, and her immigration history quickly became one of Trump’s recurring attack lines.
Trump has accused Omar, a Somali native, of obtaining U.S. citizenship through fraud, including an unsupported claim that she married her brother to secure citizenship. Omar denies it.
Last year, the administration began looking into alleged immigration fraud involving Omar.
Trump’s clashes with Omar and Minnesota’s Somali refugee community sharpened earlier this year after the state’s fraud scandal became part of his attacks.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that investigators were examining whether Omar lied on immigration forms.
“Something’s going to happen,” Mullin said.
