On 12 October, agents from Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) entered the house of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar weeks before she stands for re-election in the US midterm elections.
The Department of Justice said it was brought on from “an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” without offering further context.
Born in Somalia before moving to America as a teenager in 1995, Omar and her family have frequently been accused by the Trump administration of “immigration fraud.” Despite their insistence they have been unable to provide certifiable evidence, therefore the belief by observers is that the raid was an attempt to further scrutinise her immigration records.
On the same day, President Donald Trump insisted he had no hand in the HSI’s actions but still attacked her character: “I’ve always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me.”
Omar begged to differ in a response 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. I will not be silenced.”
Leading Democrats came together, condemning the raid: “His [Trump’s] violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”
The University of Edinburgh’s Democrats Overseas was contacted for comment:
“Ilhan Omar’s story is indicative of the American Dream, in her family’s flight from the Somali Civil War to Minneapolis, where Omar now represents the city where she was raised in Congress. The Trump Administration’s attacks on her legitimacy as an American are dangerous because they reify far-right conspiracy theories which refuse to recognise naturalised citizens as ‘real Americans’ along racial and gendered lines,” the society said.
Photo by History in HD on Unsplash.
