Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) early Monday morning, escalating an investigation into immigration documents completed by the congresswoman’s late father, according to Fox News. The Minnesota Democrat quickly framed the search as a political strike, calling it fresh evidence that President Donald Trump is “weaponizing” federal law enforcement.
The raid marks a sharp turn for Omar, who said in April that she would welcome any and all investigations into her personal history. Since then, scrutiny of her past has moved from the opinion pages and congressional hearings into a federal inquiry — though whether the search ultimately produces charges or simply political fallout remains an open question.
A history under the microscope
Born in Mogadishu in 1982, the youngest of seven children, Omar lost her mother at age two and fled Somalia’s civil war at nine. She spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States with her father in 1995, and became a citizen five years later, at 17.
Her adult life has drawn attention for a complicated marital history. Omar first wed Ahmed Hirsi, also known as Ahmed Aden, in a Muslim ceremony in 2002. She also applied for a legal marriage license at the time, per the Center for Immigration Studies, but never completed a legal wedding. The couple had two children before separating in 2008. Because they were not legally married, no civil divorce was needed.
A year later, Omar married Ahmed Elmi, a United Kingdom citizen who described himself as a “dirty dandy.” Multiple reports have suggested he was her biological brother and that the marriage was a workaround to U.S. immigration rules. Official birth certificates were never obtained, however, because many records were destroyed during Somalia’s civil war.
Omar reportedly ended the Elmi marriage through a religious ceremony only, meaning the two remained legally married when she reunited with Hirsi in 2012 and had a third child with him. The legal divorce from Elmi came in 2017, and she legally married Hirsi in 2018. A year later, she divorced Hirsi, and months afterward married political consultant Tim Mynett, who had worked on her campaign.
Legal risk vs. political pain
As tangled as that record is, the New York Post reported that the marriage questions are far more likely to cost Omar a public relations battle than a courtroom one. Even if investigators proved she entered a sham marriage to help Elmi secure a green card, the practical result would likely be the State Department barring him from returning to the United States.
The immigration-documents angle carries more weight. Investigators are examining the original paperwork Omar’s father filed when the family came to the U.S. in 1995, according to accounts of Monday’s search.
“If there’s enough evidence that she or [her father] lied on her immigration application to become a United States citizen, whether it was one time or several times, the Trump administration could initiate a denaturalization process that would strip her of her citizenship,” a senior immigration official told the Post.
The father’s record
Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, served as a colonel in the Somali Army under socialist dictator Siad Barre. In the late 1970s, he is documented to have served during the Ogaden War. Soldiers and officials on both sides of that conflict have faced accusations of war crimes and abuse, though Omar’s father was never personally linked to those accusations.
Barre seized power in 1969 as a top general and imposed what he called “scientific socialism.” Between 1987 and 1989, he led a genocidal campaign against the Isaaq clan — known as the Hargeisa Holocaust — aimed at depopulating Somaliland. Barre’s forces built minefields in civilian areas, bombed villages indiscriminately, poisoned wells, strafed fleeing civilians, and used rape as a weapon of war.
The exact date Omar’s father left Somali military service is unclear, but some reports indicate his service ended with the fall of Barre’s regime in 1991.
If he omitted his military service — or any other relevant detail — from the immigration papers he filed for himself and his family, that could immediately raise questions about the validity of Omar’s citizenship.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/ilhan-omar-welcomed-investigations-now-shes-getting-what-she-asked-for