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WASHINGTON — Federal agents raided Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington-area home Monday morning as part of a criminal investigation reportedly involving immigration paperwork her father completed when she was a child.

Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted the search under a court-authorized warrant, the Justice Department said. However, officials have not publicly detailed the suspected offense or the evidence supporting the search. CBS News reported that the investigation centers on documents completed by Omar’s late father during her childhood, citing sources familiar with the inquiry.

The operation comes 22 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections and follows administration officials’ public statements about investigating the Minnesota Democrat. President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar with attacks on her immigration background.

Omar has denied previous immigration-fraud allegations. Her office had not immediately responded to requests for comment from news organizations reporting on Monday’s search. Those earlier denials were not a response to the raid itself.

What officials have confirmed about the Ilhan Omar raid

The Associated Press reported that two people familiar with the matter confirmed the search by Homeland Security Investigations, known as HSI. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

Meanwhile, ABC News reported that its sources also connected the inquiry to Omar’s immigration paperwork. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed that agents executed a judicially authorized warrant obtained by the department.

“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the spokesperson said. The statement did not identify the specific suspected offense or explain what investigators expected to find.

The reported focus on childhood documents leaves important questions unanswered. Officials have not publicly identified the forms at issue, the allegedly false information or the conduct they attribute to Omar personally.

Similarly, the available reporting does not establish what agents seized or whether the investigation will result in charges. The search marks an investigative step, not a finding that Omar committed immigration fraud.

Vance publicly promised an investigation

The administration’s interest in Omar’s immigration history predates Monday’s raid.

During a May 19 White House briefing, Vice President JD Vance discussed allegations involving Omar’s marriage history. According to a transcript of the briefing, Vance said he did not want to prejudge an investigation but suggested that something appeared suspicious.

“If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime,” Vance said. He added that the Justice Department was examining the matter.

Those remarks document the administration’s public interest in investigating the congresswoman. However, they do not establish the legal basis for Monday’s warrant. Nor do they show that the marriage allegations Vance discussed are the same issue investigators are now examining.

Omar has rejected the allegations surrounding her marriage and immigration history. In an interview earlier this year, she told The Wall Street Journal that she had never married her brother and had never committed immigration fraud, the newspaper reported Monday.

The election timing carries its own questions

The search took place just over three weeks before voters decide control of Congress. Republicans are defending narrow majorities in the House and Senate, Reuters reported.

That timing brings the Justice Department’s own election-related rules into focus.

Section 9-85.500 of the Justice Manual prohibits federal prosecutors and agents from timing investigative steps, charges or public statements for the purpose of influencing an election. It also bars choosing the timing to benefit or disadvantage a candidate or political party.

The policy addresses purpose. The proximity of a search to Election Day does not, by itself, establish a violation.

Nevertheless, the public record leaves unanswered why investigators executed the warrant now. The department’s statement did not explain whether an urgent investigative need affected the timing. Without the warrant materials or a fuller explanation, the basis for that decision remains unclear.

Related coverage: DOJ Warns Election Officials of Prosecution

Omar previously questioned HSI’s presence at her town hall

Monday’s search follows an earlier dispute between Omar and the same investigative agency.

In an Aug. 10 statement, Omar’s office said she had demanded answers about an undercover HSI agent outside a town hall in Richfield, Minnesota. Her office said the agent claimed to be conducting a criminal operation and that local police had received no advance notice.

Omar asked why the agent was there, when the agency learned about the congressional event and whether agents had observed other official activities. She also questioned the use of a vehicle with mismatched license plates.

The statement records Omar’s allegations and requests for an explanation. It does not establish a connection between that encounter and Monday’s search.

The earlier dispute nevertheless shows that Omar had publicly challenged HSI’s conduct before agents arrived at her home.

A search does not determine citizenship status

Although the investigation reportedly concerns immigration records, the search itself does not revoke citizenship or establish grounds for deportation.

Federal law provides a separate process for revoking naturalization. Under 8 U.S.C. Section 1451, the government can pursue a civil case alleging that citizenship was obtained unlawfully or through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation. A search warrant is not a judgment resolving those issues.

The Trump administration has separately expanded its use of denaturalization proceedings. On Oct. 5, the Justice Department announced that it had filed cases against 40 people between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2. The department said the complaints sought to revoke citizenship and noted that the allegations in those civil cases had not been adjudicated.

That broader campaign provides a policy backdrop. It does not establish that officials have brought a denaturalization case against Omar or that the allegations in those unrelated cases apply to her.

According to her official biography, Omar’s family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was 8. They spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States in the 1990s. She entered Congress in January 2019, becoming the first African refugee to serve in the House and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.

For now, federal officials have confirmed a criminal investigation and a court-authorized search. They have not publicly provided the underlying evidence needed to evaluate the allegations—or explained why the search occurred weeks before the election.