WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the U.S. House condemned a “deeply disturbing” raid early Monday at the District of Columbia home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who has long been a target of verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and Republicans.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called the morning raid by Department of Homeland Security officials “egregious.”
The House minority leaders said the search of Omar’s home “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”
“For years Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar said in a statement posted on social media Monday. “Now, less than 30 days before the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”
Omar, a Somali-born American and one of four Muslims in Congress, represents a deep-blue district.
Fox News first published a report on the raid just after 7:30 a.m. Eastern, and cited two sources who told the network the operation was related to an investigation of Omar’s immigration paperwork. Omar was resettled as a refugee in the United States with her family at the age of 12 in 1995 and was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
A Department of Justice official, asked for comment on the raid, told States Newsroom: “Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”
Omar said in a post on social media Monday that she “will not be silenced.”
“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal 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,” she wrote on X.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote in a statement on X that the president is “grossly abusing his power.”
“He has repeatedly attacked her, Somali Americans, and Minnesotans. @Ilhan has done nothing to justify a pre-dawn raid ahead of the election. I stand with my sister always,” Tlaib wrote.
Trump, without evidence, has accused Omar of being connected to a $242 million fraud scheme involving pandemic-era funds meant for hunger programs, as well as other fraud investigations in the state, and has called for her to be deported.
“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Jan 18.