Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has won a fifth term representing Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, securing a decisive victory despite facing renewed attacks from President Donald Trump, a federal investigation into her immigration history and mounting threats against her and her family.
Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, defeated Republican candidate John Nagel in the November 3 midterm elections. Unofficial results, with all 217 precincts reporting, showed Omar receiving 262,702 votes, or 76.48 per cent, compared with Nagel’s 55,765 votes, or 16.23 per cent. Independent candidate DeVelle L. Jackson received 24,110 votes, or 7.02 per cent.
Her victory comes amid an escalating political and legal controversy that has placed the congresswoman at the centre of the Trump administration’s scrutiny of her immigration history and financial disclosures.
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 4, 1982, Omar fled the country with her family as a child during the civil war. They spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before being granted asylum in the United States in 1995. The family settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1997, and Omar became a naturalised US citizen in 2000, at the age of 17.
She entered politics in Minnesota and was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2016, becoming the first Somali-American elected to a state legislature in the United States.
In 2018, she won Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, becoming the first Somali-American woman elected to the US Congress. She made history alongside Rashida Tlaib, who won a congressional seat in Michigan that same year. The two became the first Muslim women elected to the US House of Representatives.
Omar also became one of the first women to wear a hijab in Congress and was sworn into office using a Quran. Since taking office in January 2019, she has become a prominent progressive voice, particularly on immigration, social welfare, foreign policy and Palestinian rights.
Renewed immigration investigation and search of her home
The latest controversy intensified on October 12, when federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., residence under a judicially authorised warrant as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
The investigation reportedly centres on immigration documents submitted by Omar’s late father when she was a child, examining allegations that information about her birth date and her father’s background may have been misrepresented during the family’s immigration process.
According to Omar’s account, agents arrived at approximately 6 a.m., surrounded the residence and searched it room by room for around four to five hours. Between 15 and 25 agents were involved, she said.
Her husband and their 20-year-old son were inside the residence at the time. Omar said agents seized fewer than 20 items, including old phones, notebooks, a camera and a Somali-language phrase book.
More than a dozen grand jury subpoenas were also reportedly issued to people connected to the investigation, including some of Omar’s relatives. The subpoenas require recipients to provide information or testimony; they do not mean those individuals have been arrested.
Omar has denied wrongdoing and described the search as an attempt to intimidate her and weaponise federal law enforcement against a political opponent. She has not been charged with an immigration offence.
The allegations are not new. During Trump’s first presidency, immigration officials examined similar claims in 2019, including questions surrounding Omar’s age, her father’s records and rumours about her former marriage.
According to a Washington Post investigation published on October 15, former immigration officials said that the earlier review found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing and that the proposal to pursue a full investigation was abandoned.
The current investigation has nevertheless revived several of those allegations. Omar has repeatedly denied claims that she married her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to help him obtain immigration benefits, as well as allegations that he was her brother. Those claims have circulated in conservative media for years but have not been established as fact.
Trump raises possibility of deportation
President Trump has repeatedly targeted Omar over her Somali background and political positions, at times questioning her right to remain in the United States despite her having become a naturalised citizen more than two decades ago.
In 2019, during his first presidency, Trump told Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen of colour to return to the countries they came from. Omar was the only one of the four who was not born in the United States.
The remarks triggered widespread criticism, with opponents describing them as xenophobic and racist. At a subsequent Trump campaign rally, supporters chanted “Send her back” as the president criticised Omar.
The attacks have continued during Trump’s second presidency. He has repeatedly used Omar’s Somali origins to criticise her, while linking her to his administration’s broader criticism of Somali immigrants and the Somali-American community.
Following the October 12 search, Trump denied having anything to do with the operation but continued attacking Omar publicly. At a rally in Ohio, he criticised Somalia and Omar’s background, prompting members of the crowd to shout “Deport”.
On October 20, when asked by a journalist whether Omar could be deported, Trump said she could be deported or jailed, adding that these were his personal views.
The administration’s investigation reportedly includes examining whether Omar’s citizenship could be challenged. However, the president cannot simply revoke a person’s citizenship or deport them through a public statement. Denaturalisation would require legal proceedings and evidence establishing a lawful basis to revoke citizenship.
Omar has not been stripped of her citizenship, and no immigration offence has been established against her.
Separate scrutiny of her husband’s businesses
The immigration investigation is not the only matter attracting federal scrutiny.
Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett, have also faced questions over financial disclosures involving businesses partly owned by Mynett.
An earlier congressional financial disclosure listed the value of companies associated with her husband at between $6 million and $30 million, prompting scrutiny from Republican lawmakers and the House Oversight Committee.
Omar later submitted an amended disclosure, saying the original figures resulted from an accounting error. The revised filing listed the couple’s joint assets at between $18,004 and $95,000, while the valuations of Mynett’s businesses were no longer listed in the same way.
CBS News reported that the US Attorney’s Office in Washington was investigating the business valuations. Omar has rejected allegations of financial wrongdoing, and the existence of an investigation does not establish that she or her husband committed an offence.
Attacked during a public town hall
The political hostility directed at Omar has also been accompanied by threats and physical violence.
On January 27, 2026, a man approached her during a public town hall meeting in Minneapolis and sprayed liquid at her from a syringe while she was speaking.
The incident occurred as Omar was criticising US immigration enforcement and calling for the resignation of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The attacker, identified as Anthony James Kazmierczak, was immediately subdued by security personnel and arrested. Laboratory testing later identified the liquid as a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar.
Federal investigators determined that the attack had been planned in advance. Kazmierczak pleaded guilty in May to assaulting a US officer and was sentenced to 14 months in prison in September.
Following the incident, Omar said that death threats against her increased whenever Trump used hostile rhetoric about her and the Somali-American community.
Death threats and online harassment
Omar has faced years of racist abuse, anti-Muslim hostility and threats since entering Congress.
In one case, a Florida man, Myles McQuade, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to transmitting online threats against Omar and members of her immediate family. The threats, posted on X in September 2025, included messages threatening to kill the congresswoman and her children. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Another man from Kansas, Adam Lee Osborn, was indicted in January 2026 after allegedly posting a threat on social media saying he intended to kill Omar. He later pleaded guilty to making an online threat, according to federal prosecutors.
The threats have also affected her family’s security. Following the October search, Omar said she could no longer safely remain at her Washington residence because the operation had made its address public and she was receiving death threats.
In an interview with MS NOW, she said she would have to find another place to live because she did not want people tracking her children when they visited. She also said she was confident she had done nothing wrong and would not be forced out of Congress.
Despite the investigation, threats and repeated attacks from the president, Omar continued her campaign and secured a fifth term in Congress.
Her victory preserves the seat she has held since 2019 and marks another chapter in the political career of a former Somali refugee who became one of the first Muslim women elected to the US Congress.
