Federal agents executed a search warrant at the Washington, D.C. home of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday, part of a Department of Homeland Security investigation into possible immigration fraud, according to commentary from author Peter Schweizer on the podcast The Drill Down.
The search follows more than a decade of unresolved allegations surrounding Omar’s immigration history. Questions have persisted since at least 2016 about whether her age was misstated when she was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2000, and whether she married a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 in order to help him obtain a visa to enter the United States from Great Britain. Allegations have also circulated that Elmi may be her biological brother.
Schweizer, speaking alongside co-host Eric Eggers, who was guest-hosting Dan Ball’s OAN program in San Diego this week, pointed to a Washington Post report that when Elmi applied for a marriage-based green card in 2019, immigration authorities requested additional information about the validity of the marriage, and he subsequently withdrew the application.
On the naturalization question, Schweizer said Omar’s father claimed she was 17 when he became a citizen in 2000, but original documents suggested she was born in 1981 rather than 1982 — a discrepancy that matters because an 18-year-old would have had to apply for citizenship separately.
“This is not a minor issue, just like the question about whether she married her brother to help him get status in the United States. These are very specific questions on immigration forms, and it happens thousands of times every year that people are deported because they lied about very important specific material things,” Schweizer said.
Schweizer argued that Omar has never directly answered the specific allegations over the past ten years, instead responding to the scrutiny by calling it racist or bigoted. He also noted that House ethics rules raise separate disclosure questions about Omar’s finances, including fluctuations in her net worth and a winery owned by her husband.
Obama Weighs In
Former President Barack Obama posted on social media that Omar is being targeted by President Trump because of her political views. Schweizer called that claim ironic, noting that in December 2016 Obama’s administration made use of the Steele Dossier against his own political opponent, Trump.
Schweizer speculated that Obama’s unusually public intervention suggests Democrats are worried the allegations have substance. “Obama tends to be very cautious on these things. He operates behind the scenes as we all know, but it’s very rare for him to step up in a controversy like this and try to lay down the law,” Schweizer said. “So, it indicates to me that they are frankly concerned that there actually is fire behind the smoke.”
Slotkin’s Warning to Would-Be Trump Staffers
The Omar case surfaced the same weekend that Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin drew attention for remarks in an interview with Vox, in which she urged young people considering jobs in the Trump administration to reconsider. “I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want. So let me avoid participating in that,'” Slotkin said, suggesting that Democrats retaking a congressional majority next month could lead to investigations of Trump administration staffers.
Trump responded by calling Slotkin a “lowlife.”
Schweizer described Slotkin’s comments as an attempt at political intimidation rather than a legitimate inquiry. “This is political targeting, because she is preemptively saying, ‘I want to deter you from going and working for certain political figures. And I’m going to do that by threatening you with legal action,'” he said. He added that he has not seen anyone on the political left publicly criticize her remarks.
Drawing the Line
Schweizer said both cases raise a broader question about distinguishing legitimate investigations from politically motivated ones. “I’m not saying there aren’t instances where Republicans have targeted Democrats, or that there are instances where Democrats have legitimately raised questions about Republicans,” he said. “We need to have those checks and balances built into our system.”
He cited a recent Fox News survey finding that 88 percent of Americans are concerned about government corruption, which he said is the highest level he has seen. Schweizer, who leads the Government Accountability Institute, said transparency should apply regardless of party, but that the public should be able to “parse out legitimate inquiries and investigations as opposed to just trying to throw the book at somebody and hoping you’re going to hit them.”
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