Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar could face deportation
A senior Trump administration official has said Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar could potentially lose her U.S. citizenship and be deported if investigators prove immigration fraud. The comments come days after federal agents raided her Washington, D.C., home as part of a probe into paperwork from her naturalization more than two decades ago.
Current investigation
On October 12, 2026, agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar’s residence, seizing her phone, computers, notebooks, and passport under a court-approved warrant. Sources familiar with the case say the inquiry focuses on whether her late father misstated her age on immigration documents so she would qualify for automatic derivative citizenship at 17 rather than undergoing a separate process. Omar became a citizen in 2000. No charges have been filed.
On October 18, White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News that denaturalization and deportation were possible “of course” if evidence showed she lied during naturalization. “If you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize somebody. We’ve done it before,” Homan said, adding that Omar would face the same standards as any other person and that investigators had described a “strong case.” Legal experts note that revoking citizenship of a sitting member of Congress would require a court ruling and is a rare, difficult step.
Omar has denied wrongdoing. She called the raid an attempt to intimidate a political opponent weeks before the midterm elections and said President Trump has targeted her with “baseless lies” for a decade. Democratic leaders have described the search as an abuse of power timed near an election.
Background on Ilhan Omar
Omar was born in Somalia and fled the country’s civil war as a child. She spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States in 1995 with her family as a refugee. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000. In 2018 she was elected to represent Minnesota’s 5th congressional district—a heavily Democratic seat with a large Somali-American community—making her the first Somali-American in Congress and one of the first Muslim women to serve there. She is a member of the progressive “Squad.”
Long-running political conflict
Omar has been a frequent target of Donald Trump and many Republicans since early in her congressional tenure. In 2019, Trump told four Democratic congresswomen, including Omar, to “go back” to the countries they came from; rally crowds chanted “Send her back!” at her. Critics have accused her of antisemitism over her sharp criticism of Israel and U.S. support for it, allegations she has rejected as attempts to silence her. She has also faced scrutiny over past personal matters, including marriage-related claims she has denied, and over statements touching on Somalia or immigration enforcement.
Trump has repeatedly called her “corrupt,” said she “hates the USA,” and suggested she should be jailed or “sent back to Somalia.” The current probe and Homan’s remarks represent an escalation of that rhetoric into formal investigative steps by the administration, occurring just weeks before the November 2026 midterms in which Omar is seeking re-election.
The case has sharpened debate over the use of immigration enforcement tools against elected officials, the timing of actions so close to an election, and the boundaries of denaturalization proceedings. Omar maintains she has done nothing wrong and will not be silenced.
