Ilhan Omar says agents seized 17 items during search of her home
In her first interview since the October 12 raid, the Minnesota congresswoman described a nearly five-hour search, denied immigration-fraud allegations and said she believed the operation was meant to frighten her.
Ilhan Omar said in an October 21 interview that federal agents seized 17 items, including several phones, during an October 12 search of her home. The Guardian reported that it was the Minnesota congresswoman’s first interview since the raid, giving her account of the search amid disputed immigration-fraud allegations.
Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes that about 10 to 15 Homeland Security Investigations agents pounded on her door at 6 a.m. and executed a search warrant. She said they searched her residence room by room for nearly five hours before taking the items. Those details are Omar’s account, as reported by The Guardian.
Why Omar says the raid was meant to frighten her
Omar said she believed the operation was meant to appease supporters of President Donald Trump. She told Hayes that people had repeatedly suggested something would happen to her. ‘You don’t show up to somebody’s house that early in the morning unless you’re trying to freak them out,’ she said. The purpose she ascribed to the search was her interpretation.
She said she believed her opponents would like to see her jailed, deported or driven from office. ‘I have a legal right to be a member of Congress,’ Omar said. The Guardian described the search as an escalation in a years-long feud between Omar and Trump.
Immigration allegations and Trump’s remarks
Omar denied immigration fraud in the interview. The Guardian reported that officials and rightwing influencers have promoted baseless theories alleging she entered a sham marriage with her brother and misstated details of her immigration paperwork. Omar said the brother rumor began on a Somali blog before gaining traction among rightwing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis.
Asked at the White House on October 20 whether Omar could face deportation over alleged misstatements in her immigration paperwork, Trump said: ‘Well, she could be. She could also go to jail.’ He called her a ‘sick, very dishonest person who hates our country,’ The Guardian reported. Omar disputed the allegations in her interview.
Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, according to her official House biography. It says her family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was eight, spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya and moved to Minneapolis in 1997. Her background gives context to the deportation comments directed at her.
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Sources and context
- Ilhan Omar says US agents seized 17 items in raid designed to ‘freak’ her outThe Guardian
- About | Representative Ilhan OmarOffice of Representative Ilhan Omar
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.