Democrats rebuke federal raid of Ilhan Omar’s home: ‘rogue abuse of power’

Ilhan Omar speaks with members of the Congressional Progressive caucus, Maxwell Frost, Pramila Jayapal and Chuy Garcia, in Washington DC on 13 January. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APView image in fullscreenIlhan Omar speaks with members of the Congressional Progressive caucus, Maxwell Frost, Pramila Jayapal and Chuy Garcia, in Washington DC on 13 January. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APDemocrats rebuke federal raid of Ilhan Omar’s home: ‘rogue abuse of power’Top House Democrats question the ‘corrupt weaponization’ of federal government against Trump’s adversaries

Ilhan Omar’s Democratic colleagues have condemned federal agents’ search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home on Monday morning, describing it as “deeply disturbing” and emblematic of the Trump administration’s “corrupt weaponization” of the US government.

House Democratic leaders, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, party whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar, issued a joint statement excoriating the president for the search.

“The Trump administration’s raid on congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against [the president’s] adversaries,” their statement said.

Read more“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations. Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected member of Congress and her family.”

The Democratic leaders vowed to “deliver full accountability for the rogue abuse of power” from the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the latter of which oversees immigration enforcement.

Citing unnamed sources “close to the investigation”, Fox News – which is typically friendly with the Trump administration – reported that the search on Omar’s home pertained to a criminal fraud investigation concerning her immigration paperwork. Omar’s late father filled out that paperwork when Omar, a Somali-born, naturalized US citizen, was a child.

California representative Ro Khanna also condemned Monday’s search, saying: “It is simply chilling that they are targeting political opponents this way, and it is disturbing that they are targeting Muslim Americans and a Muslim American legislator. Any decent American needs to stand up and speak out.”

Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Khanna’s fellow Democrat and California representative, called the search “fascism in the extreme”.

“This is an unadulterated abuse of power,” Kamlager-Dove said. “Trump is weaponizing the federal government to escalate his racist attacks against [representative] Omar, undermine her ahead of the midterms [on 3 November], and distract from his failures as president.”

Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic House member from Washington state, similarly called the search of Omar’s home a “disgusting abuse of power from an out of control president” facing widespread public disapproval from high living costs amid the war in Iran that he helped start alongside Israel in February.

“To use federal law enforcement resources to raid the home of a sitting Member of Congress weeks before an election is a dangerous sign of an authoritarian president who will stop at nothing to distract you from his deep unpopularity with the American people,” Jayapal added.

Jayapal’s statement alluded to years of unsubstantiated rumors from Trump and others about Omar and her family, including the accusation that her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is in fact her brother – and that the marriage was part of an effort to earn him immigration status. Omar has denied those rumors.

View image in fullscreenHomeland security officers carry boxes from the Washington DC residence of Ilhan Omar on Monday during a search. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/APThe Illinois representative Delia C Ramirez called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be dismantled. Omar “has not backed down, so now they are using DHS and the federal government to target and persecute her”, Ramirez said in a post on X.

“This is an absolute abuse of power and unacceptable. We must strip them of their weapons. We must dismantle DHS.”

Similarly, Greg Casar, a Democratic representative from Texas, wrote that the Trump administration is targeting Omar “because he thinks it’ll help his [Republican] party” during the midterms, when it is expected to lose seats in Congress.

“Ilhan Omar stands up and won’t let Trump do whatever he wants to our country,” Casar said. “It’s up to us to do the same.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, also spoke out against the search of Omar’s home, saying: “We strongly condemn this unconscionable raid on her home for what it is: an obvious act of political persecution.”

Criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex-trafficking network as well as the president’s pardons for those who attacked the US Capitol in early 2021, Cair said the justice department “could clearly [not] care less about fighting crime and is instead focused on conducting a witch hunt”.