In May 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) congressional team requested that officials in Minnesota modify her recorded birth year from 1981 to 1982, according to emails reviewed by the New York Post.
This request surfaced a few months after Omar was sworn into Congress and came after a political opponent released a video challenging her age. The situation gained renewed attention when federal agents searched her Washington, DC, residence on Monday as part of an ongoing investigation.
Omar’s official biography in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library had previously stated her birthday as October 4, 1981. This date was consistently used throughout her tenure in the Minnesota House and remained listed even during her initial months in Congress, according to the Post.
An email from May 24, 2019, included details from the library’s director about how Omar’s office had made the request for this correction.
“On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar’s congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982,” the director explained.
This effort didn’t stop at the state legislative website, as noted in the email.
“Rep. Omar’s congressional staff is working with Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, among other sites, to update her birth year,” the director stated. “Currently, the birth year hasn’t been changed on those two platforms.”
The director also pointed out that the original entry lacked supporting documents. Omar has previously stated that she acquired U.S. citizenship in 2000 through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, after her family moved to the United States from Somalia in 1995.
“I actually became a citizen before I turned 18,” Omar told the Intercept in September 2018. “My father became a citizen, and I received my citizenship through that process.”
The difference of one year is significant to her narrative. If she was born on October 4, 1981, she would have turned 18 by October 1999. If she was born on October 4, 1982, she would still be 17 until October 2000.
Federal guidelines indicate that citizenship claims involving events occurring before February 27, 2001, are evaluated based on the laws applicable at that time. The regulations for obtaining citizenship through a parent included certain age requirements and conditions, meaning establishing eligibility would involve the appropriate family and immigration records.
AJ Kern, who ran unsuccessfully against Omar in the 2022 Democratic primary for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, expressed skepticism about both Omar’s reported age and her father’s naturalization process.
“She asserts that her citizenship story is that she derived citizenship through her father as a 17-year-old minor,” Kern mentioned.
“For derivative citizenship to be valid, two conditions must be met — her father must have naturalized, and she needed to still be a minor. What I found suggests it’s very likely that neither of those conditions were met,” she claimed.
Kern’s assertions do not prove that Omar acquired citizenship improperly. The emails referenced do not indicate that Omar provided a false birthdate on her citizenship application. Kern previously attempted to file a complaint seeking evidence of Omar’s citizenship, but the case did not progress when a judge determined that oversight of congressional members falls under Congress’s jurisdiction.
When asked what investigators might have been looking for during Monday’s search, Kern speculated it could relate to Omar’s citizenship documentation and her father’s naturalization records. However, that was merely her conjecture, not confirmed information regarding what agents were authorized to retrieve.
Homeland Security Investigations executed the search based on a warrant obtained from the Justice Department. The department acknowledged that the operation was part of an ongoing federal inquiry but did not disclose specific details about the reasons behind it.
Reuters, citing a source familiar with the investigation, reported that the inquiry pertains to alleged immigration fraud, focusing on documentation submitted by Omar’s late father during her childhood.
Omar has consistently denied any allegations of immigration fraud. In a statement made on Monday, she accused former President Donald Trump of misusing federal law enforcement against her.
“I’m okay. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political adversaries and weaponize federal law enforcement. For a decade, Trump has directed baseless accusations and smear campaigns at me. This is merely the latest step in his campaign of political intimidation,” she wrote.
