Feds Seized Ilhan Omar’s Passport, Phone, and Computers in Raid: WSJ

(Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP photo)

Federal agents seized Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) passport, cellphone, notebooks, and personal computers during a raid of her Washington, D.C., home as the Trump administration investigates whether it can build a case to strip the Minnesota Democrat of her U.S. citizenship.

The items were taken during a court-authorized search early Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported that Omar and her husband were the only people home when Homeland Security investigators arrived.

Authorities have also reportedly issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to members of Omar’s family, as a Minnesota grand jury examines her family’s immigration paperwork.

The investigation is focused in part on how Omar became a U.S. citizen after arriving from Somalia as a child, and specifically whether her age was inaccurately represented during the process. Investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father listed her as 17 rather than 18 when he applied for citizenship, according to The Journal. The distinction could be significant because Omar would have qualified for derivative citizenship automatically as a minor.

Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and blasted the raid as “political intimidation.”

The investigation lands three weeks before the midterm election, in which Omar is seeking re-election, and comes after years of attacks from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for her deportation.

Trump returned to the subject Monday night while campaigning in Ohio, prompting chants of “deport” from the audience after he spoke about Omar and other Somali immigrants.

To remove a naturalized citizen’s status the Justice Department would have to bring a federal denaturalization case and prove citizenship was illegally obtained or secured through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.

The Trump administration has dramatically expanded use of that process, filing more than 200 denaturalization lawsuits this term, according to The Journal.

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