US Representative Ilhan Omar denied allegations that her ex-husband is her biological brother, calling the claims baseless and originating from a Somali blog. She addressed the federal raid at her home, describing it as intrusive but polite, and emphasized her lawyers are taking the matter seriously.
ON OCTOBER 22, 2026, Democratic Representative of Minnesota Ilhan Omar made her first media appearance since federal agents conducted an early-morning raid at her Washington, D.C., home on October 12, 2026. In an interview with American Media Group, MS NOW, she spoke to interviewer Chris Hayes about the raid and the allegation that she married her biological brother. She said that when federal agents arrived at her house, she and her husband were startled and confused.
The congresswoman married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in a civil ceremony in 2009 and later divorced him in 2017. Since then, conservative critics, especially from US President Donald Trump’s Republican party, have alleged that the British citizen she married was actually her biological brother. According to the allegation, she married her alleged biological brother to commit immigration fraud so that he could receive benefits in the United States.
On October 12, 2026, Omar’s house was searched by federal agents who arrived early in the morning along with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers. The raid was conducted to find evidence of whether she had committed immigration fraud, which could potentially lead to her incarceration or deportation. When the interviewer asked her how she felt about the allegations, she replied, “I take it very seriously. I’m sure my lawyers are taking it very seriously.”
She also said that it would be quite a feat for a 12-year-old girl to conspire to commit such fraud. “A 12-year-old for being so cleverly, you know, conspiring to, you know, to defraud immigration services to come to the United States. It's such a, I don't know. I'm sure there are a lot of smart 12 year olds, but that seems like a leap,” she said.
The interviewer then asked Omar about allegations made by Trump that she had married her brother. In response, she said that the allegation had originated with a Somali blog post. “It started with the Somali blog that I don't know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” she said, adding that the right wing later picked up the claim.
The interviewer then asked her, “You were not related to him at all.” Omar replied, “Not to my knowledge.” They also discussed her father and his naturalization process. Omar said it was convenient for those making the allegations to target her father because he was no longer alive. She said the government had her father’s naturalization papers, which he had signed. “Like the people who knocked on my door searching for papers literally have his papers. They are the ones who processed us to come to the United States,” she said.
There were also reports that federal agents had collected DNA evidence from her house. However, when asked about it, Omar said, “No.” She explained that whenever agents take anything, they are required to list it, and DNA evidence was not mentioned in the documents provided to her. Omar said she later checked her entire house to ensure that everything was in place. She added, “They did a really good job in putting everything back in its place. They actually even folded some of my clothing that was not folded. So it was very bizarre….Intrusive but polite.”
While speaking about the raid at her house during the interview, she said, “Well, I mean, you don’t show up to somebody’s house that early in the morning unless you were trying to freak them out, and, you know, it obviously did freak all of us out.” She explained that it was 6:00 a.m. and she had not been able to get enough sleep when the officers suddenly started banging on the door. She said they initially thought it was a dream and not reality. “I thought something was on fire. I thought something was happening to the neighbor. It sounded like an urgent evacuation sort of situation.”
Omar said that she, her husband, and their 20-year-old son were present in the house during the incident. She said she was confused when she saw HSI officers because they often focus on issues such as human trafficking, drugs, and cybersecurity. “The fact that they were at my house that early in the morning, you know, was so, so bizarre. I was like, ‘Why are you here?’” she said.
When she asked for the warrant, the agents showed it to her at the door and asked her to sign a two-page waiver, which she refused to sign. She said there were around 15 to 25 agents and described their conduct as decent. Omar said the agents searched every room and took a total of 17 items, including her old phone, her daughter’s first phone, and a new phone that she had just replaced. Other belongings included her husband’s camera, a Somali-language book, and some of his notebooks.
She added that the search took four to five hours. “I was surprised when they handed me the receipt for the items that they'd taken to do that long of a search and to walk away with 17 items of like 10 that were just notebooks and like old phones. It's such a bizarre, bizarre thing.”
(Edited by Ritik Singh)
[Rh/VP/RS]
Suggested Reading:
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube and WhatsApp
Download our app on Play Store