THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- Federal investigators have subpoenaed Ilhan Omar’s relatives, including her sister Sahra Noor, as they examine possible false statements in the Minnesota Democrat’s immigration history.
- A 2019 request from Omar’s congressional staff changed her publicly listed birth year from 1981 to 1982. Investigators are examining her age in connection with her claim that she obtained citizenship through her father’s naturalization.
- Agents searched Omar’s Washington home Monday. Omar calls the investigation political intimidation; no immigration-related criminal charges against her have been announced.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Federal investigators examining Rep. Ilhan Omar’s immigration history have subpoenaed members of her family, and a one-year discrepancy in her publicly recorded birthdate is receiving fresh attention.
It may sound like a minor detail. But when the question involves how someone obtained American citizenship as a minor, age is hardly a trivial matter.
According to reporting by Fox News, the New York Times and the New York Post, investigators have subpoenaed Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, and other family members as they examine possible fraud or false statements in immigration paperwork.
The subpoenas follow Monday’s search of Omar’s Washington, D.C., home by Homeland Security Investigations agents.
The Justice Department confirmed that the search was conducted under a judicially authorized warrant as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
The newest wrinkle involves a correction requested years after Omar arrived in Congress.
In May 2019, members of her congressional staff contacted Minnesota’s Legislative Reference Library to change her publicly listed birth year from 1981 to 1982.
According to an email reported by the New York Post, the library’s director wrote that staff had been informed by Omar’s congressional office that her birth year was incorrect and had been asked to update it.
Omar’s staff were also working to correct the year in other public references, including Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Here’s the detail that makes the correction worth examining carefully: The library said its original 1981 entry had been taken from other reference sources and entered “without documentation.”
In other words, a corrected public biography is not proof of a falsified immigration document. But the underlying question about Omar’s age is now part of a much larger federal inquiry. Omar has said she became a U.S. citizen through her father’s naturalization in 2000, before she turned 18.
“I became a citizen actually before I turned 18,” she said in a 2018 interview with The Intercept. “My father became a citizen and so I got my citizenship through that process.”
Investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, provided inaccurate information in immigration documents, according to reports citing people familiar with the inquiry. The Washington Post also reported scrutiny of whether Mohamed misrepresented or omitted information about his military background.
Omar has consistently denied immigration wrongdoing.
After agents searched her home, she accused the Trump administration of using federal law enforcement against a political opponent. “I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar wrote on X. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she continued.
“I will not be silenced.”
Trump, meanwhile, has publicly demanded answers about Omar’s financial disclosures, which are the subject of a separate federal examination described by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “America wants answers, and we want them, NOW!” Trump said in a statement shared by the White House. That financial matter should not be confused with the immigration inquiry. The two involve different allegations, and the available reporting does not establish that they are connected.
Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the immigration investigation, saying he had no advance knowledge of the search. “If there’s a real case there, we’re going to follow the facts,” Vance said. “If there’s not a real case there, then we won’t.”
The subpoenas are significant because investigators are seeking evidence from people close to Omar. But receiving a subpoena does not mean a family member has committed a crime. And the 2019 biography correction, however politically intriguing, does not establish that Omar misstated her age on official immigration paperwork. The unanswered question is what the underlying documents actually show.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Fox News — Omar’s immigration history faces new scrutiny as federal investigators subpoena relatives
- New York Post — Ilhan Omar’s relatives subpoenaed amid immigration investigation
- Washington Post — Investigation focuses on Omar’s birthdate and citizenship papers
- Fox News — Omar raid outrage draws renewed attention to her previous statement about the law
- Wall Street Journal — Federal agents search Ilhan Omar’s home
