On the morning of October 12, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the Washington, D.C.-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a longtime target of Trump's attacks who is running for reelection. “Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,” a Justice Department spokesperson said. “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” The department did not say what the investigation concerns, the warrant has not been made public, and no charges have been filed. A source told CNN that top Justice Department leadership signed off after deliberating over the proximity to the election, and that a federal judge approved the warrant.
What the probe is about rests on anonymous sources. A senior administration official told Politico the search relates to Omar's immigration paperwork; two sources told Fox News it stems from a fraud investigation into paperwork filled out by her late father when she was a child. One person told NBC News it is part of a yearslong investigation by HSI, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis and the Justice Department. Omar has denied allegations of immigration fraud, AP reported.
Two days earlier, at a rally in Tennessee, Trump said, “How about Ilhan Omar? She comes from Somalia,” and later, “And let's see what happens. JD Vance and our people are looking at it very strongly,” NBC News reported. Politico noted that Trump announced on Truth Social in January that the Justice Department was investigating her. The search came 22 days before the midterm elections; NBC noted there is no blanket rule barring Justice Department action within 60 days of an election, but that restraint has long been an unwritten practice.
Omar wrote on X, “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” and, “I will not be silenced.” House Democratic leaders called the search “deeply disturbing.”
Update (October 13, 2026): in his first remarks on the search, on October 12, Trump said, “Well, I understand they're looking at her very carefully,” and, “I've always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” adding, “I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ,” and, “I have nothing to do with it,” The Hill reported; AP's account quotes “very crooked.” At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, that night he said, “She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, where all they do is shoot each other. And she comes into our country, and she says, 'I have a constitutional right,'” ABC News reported, and the crowd chanted “deport,” Fox News reported. Vice President Vance said, “I did not have advance notice that her home was being raided.” Speaker Mike Johnson said, “Maybe the timing's unfortunate for her or others, but this is the legal system, and it operates independently of the political system.” Rep. Robert Garcia called searching her home “over a decades-old immigration filing by her father” an “authoritarian abuse of power.” No charges had been filed, and the warrant had not been made public.
Update (October 14, 2026): two people familiar with the investigation told NBC News that agents seized Omar's phone during the search and that roughly a dozen subpoenas have gone out in the case, including to family members, tied to a federal grand jury in Minnesota; potential charges under examination include conspiracy and false statements in immigration paperwork. The New York Times reported, as relayed by Fox News, that her sister Sahra Noor was subpoenaed. These accounts rest on unnamed sources; no charges have been filed.
Update (October 17, 2026): USA Today, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported the probe “is aimed at revoking her American citizenship and deporting her” if investigators can prove false statements in her immigration paperwork, and Reuters, citing three people, reported the warrant lists conspiracy, false statements and immigration fraud; both rest on unnamed sources. Reuters noted that in January, asked by the New York Times whether Omar should lose her citizenship, Trump said, “Oh, absolutely.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on October 16, “There was multiple other warrants served on that same day,” and, “we wouldn't move forward, and President Trump didn't want to move forward either, unless we knew that it couldn't be politically driven,” CBS News reported; Trump had said days earlier, “I have nothing to do with it.” Omar's lawyers wrote that the search “was neither justified nor lawful”; the Justice Department called their letter “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.” The Washington Post reported, citing three former officials, that a 2019 HSI review found “insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.”
Update (October 18, 2026): Omar's lawyers say agents broke the protocols a magistrate judge required to protect her rights as a member of Congress. CBS News reported the judge had raised concerns that the warrant lacked protections for her legislative privileges under the Constitution's speech and debate clause. The lawyers' letter says agents did not notify Omar or the House Office of General Counsel when they executed the warrant, and kept her from contacting her attorney for more than an hour; it demands the return of her property and preservation of audio and video of the search. “Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” department spokesperson Emily Covington said. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said “there are several investigations going on” related to Omar, including into her financial disclosures, the AP reported. The New York Post, citing a New York Times report based on unnamed sources, reported that texts found on her sister's phone were used to obtain the warrant; that has not been independently confirmed.
Update (October 19, 2026): Border czar Tom Homan said on Fox that he was told investigators have a “strong case,” answered “of course” when asked whether denaturalization or deportation was possible, and added, “I know things, but that's a question for the FBI,” the Star Tribune reported. Former President Barack Obama wrote on October 18, “The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.” A White House spokeswoman told Fox News, “President Trump has not weaponized the Department of Justice against his political foes.” No charges have been filed.
Update (October 22, 2026): asked in the Oval Office on October 20 whether Omar could be deported, Trump said, “Well, she could be. She could also go to jail,” and added, “Somalians vote for her,” and that “most of them shouldn't be here,” according to the Roll Call Factbase transcript. In her first interview since the search, Omar told MS NOW it lasted four to five hours and involved as many as 25 agents, that she was asked to sign a document waiving the protections the Constitution gives a member of Congress and declined, and that agents “mostly conducted themselves in a decent way” and left with “17 items.” She said she will move out of her Washington home because of threats, the AP and the Guardian reported.
Update (October 23, 2026): on the evening of October 22 Trump demanded Omar's resignation on Truth Social, seizing on an October 21 Justice Department court filing about the search that listed her as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar” without explanation. “Because she used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume she must IMMEDIATELY resign from Congress,” he wrote, according to Al Arabiya, and, per The Hill, “Please inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives, James Michael Johnson, that the Dumocrat Party has just conceded her seat,” adding that she “has openly admitted to FRAUD, and she will not be legally allowed to be a Member of this August Body from this point forth.” No court has made any such finding. At an Iowa rally the same night he said, “If you get sworn in with a false name, I would imagine that's pretty tough to remain,” drawing chants of “Lock her up.” Omar's spokesperson told Fox News, “This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name.”
Update (October 30, 2026): In a heavily redacted filing on October 27 signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the Justice Department asked Chief Judge James Boasberg to deny, for now, a request by 14 news organizations to unseal the search warrant, The Hill reported. “Unsealing everything now imperils the investigation,” prosecutors wrote, arguing that the warrant has not been fully executed; the department “anticipates that a public charging decision will follow.” Pirro wrote that her office “will not necessarily oppose unsealing at least some of the search warrant records” later, the Star Tribune reported, and that the news organizations had not identified “a single case in which a court unsealed a warrant-related document while the execution was still ongoing and during an investigation.” The requesters include the New York Times, the Star Tribune and the conservative group Judicial Watch. No charges have been filed.