Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the Washington home of Representative Ilhan Omar before dawn on Monday. The Justice Department said H.S.I. had executed a judicially authorized search warrant it secured, and that the action was part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. The statement did not name Ms. Omar.
The search began around 6 a.m. Agents blocked the street and were photographed carrying boxes from the residence.
The investigation is known internally as “World War 11,” according to The Washington Post. The name refers to a January 2025 news conference at which Ms. Omar, introducing a bill to repeal the Alien Enemies Act, misread her notes and said the law had last been used during “World War Eleven.” She corrected herself immediately. An edited clip omitting the correction circulated widely in April 2026.
People familiar with the inquiry told Fox News, ABC and CBS that it concerns Ms. Omar’s immigration paperwork, specifically documents her late father completed on her behalf when she was a child. She was born in Somalia, fled with her family to a refugee camp in Kenya, and was later naturalized.
NBC reported that Monday’s search is part of a yearslong investigation run jointly by H.S.I., the United States attorney in Minneapolis and the Justice Department. A person familiar with the matter said whistleblowers are involved.
Ms. Omar said the search was an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement, and that she would not be silenced.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, confirmed in September on Fox News that Ms. Omar was the subject of a criminal investigation, declining to say whether the government had evidence of fraud. In December he told Newsmax that an investigator who reviewed her file concluded fraud was involved, and that the statute of limitations had become an obstacle.
Ms. Omar has denied allegations of immigration fraud, including unsubstantiated claims that she married a man named Ahmed Elmi for immigration purposes.
The search came three weeks before the November midterms. Ms. Omar is on the ballot in Minnesota’s Fifth District.
The House Oversight Committee is separately examining the finances of Ms. Omar and her husband, the investor Tim Mynett. Its chairman, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, has said he is weighing a subpoena. Her 2024 disclosure listed between $6 million and $30 million in assets tied to business ventures.
H.S.I. has jurisdiction over immigration document fraud, identity fraud and immigration benefit fraud.
