Tom Homan Says Investigation Involving Ilhan Omar Had Been Underway for Some Time

Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that an investigation involving Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had been underway for some time and involved both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

Homan spoke to Fox News after Omar accused President Donald Trump and his administration of targeting her with “baseless lies and smear campaigns,” and described the search of her home as politically motivated.

Former assistant U.S. attorney Jonathan Fahey told the New York Post that a federal judge’s approval of a search warrant indicated investigators had established probable cause.

“The big picture here is a federal judge in Washington, D.C., signed off on a search warrant. That means there’s probable cause that a federal crime was committed, and there would be evidence of that crime in the area to be searched, which in this case was Representative Omar’s home,” Fahey said.

“For a D.C. judge to sign off on something that’s 20 years old, you have to say you believe there is current evidence of the crime in her house,” he added.

“A judge must have been very convinced.”

Sources have said the Homeland Security Investigations search concerned alleged criminal fraud involving Omar’s immigration paperwork, which her late father reportedly completed. Omar obtained citizenship as a minor through a 2000 application in which her father represented her.

In 2019, a Minnesota political content creator published a video pointing to Minnesota Legislative Reference Library records that listed Omar’s birth year as 1981. That would have made her 18 or 19 when the application was filed, potentially raising questions about her eligibility as a minor. The library’s records were changed two days after the video appeared to list her birth year as 1982.

The original article suggests that knowingly using an incorrect birthdate on later paperwork could affect the statute-of-limitations analysis. Fahey also argued that investigators may be looking for evidence of conduct that falls outside the limitations period.

“A federal judge saw something that said, we believe there’s evidence of a crime that will be found in that house, and presumably it would be something that’s not just a crime beyond the statute of limitations,” Fahey said.

Homan declined to discuss the details of the investigation.

“We know this investigation was ongoing for a while. There was a warrant executed this morning, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said.

“The specifics of the investigation, I think I need to turn that over to Todd Blanche or Markwayne Mullin,” he added, referring to the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security.

Omar has said that records of her birth were destroyed during unrest in Somalia. She has not addressed the substance of the allegations. Instead, she called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”

“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 said in a statement on X. “I will not be silenced.”

Omar has faced past criticism over her politics and personal affairs. In 2023, the House removed her from the Foreign Affairs Committee following a series of anti-Israel remarks. She has also faced scrutiny over campaign payments to a firm associated with her husband, as well as questions about her second marriage. Claims that the man was her brother have circulated for years; the article presents them as allegations.