Ilhan Omar Says Pre-Dawn Raid on Her Home Was Meant to Intimidate, Denies Immigration Fraud

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has denied allegations of immigration fraud. In her first interview since federal agents raided her home last week, given on Wednesday, she said the pre-dawn raid was designed to frighten her and to scare voters away from the midterm elections. Speaking on MS Now, she said she has a legal right to be a member of Congress.

According to Omar, on October 12 at 6am between 10 and 15 Homeland Security Investigations agents pounded on her door and executed a search warrant. After searching her residence room by room for nearly five hours, the agents seized 17 items, including several phones. She said nobody shows up at someone's house that early in the morning unless they are trying to freak them out.

The raid on her Washington, DC home was carried out as part of an investigation into potential immigration fraud. Authorities are examining whether Omar or her father lied on paperwork that helped her gain citizenship. Border czar Tom Homan has said that if the allegations are proven, Omar could be denaturalized.

For years, theories have circulated accusing Omar of a sham marriage with her brother and of fudging details of her immigration paperwork. Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes that the brother rumours began on a Somali blog before being picked up by right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis. She accused people in Donald Trump's orbit, cabinet officials and right-wing influencers alike, of promoting baseless theories about her.

The raid marks an escalation of a years-long feud between Omar and Trump. The president has repeatedly denigrated her character, faith and Somali heritage. Most recently, on Tuesday at the White House, he called her a sick, very dishonest person who hates the country. Asked whether she could face deportation over alleged misstatements in her immigration paperwork, Trump replied that she could be, and that she could also go to jail.

Omar believes the raid was designed to appease Trump loyalists. In her words, loyalists were starting to lose faith that the promises were empty, so the administration had to do something to be able to say, hey, look, we raided her house.

She alleged that the wider goal was to intimidate voters. Whether it is Metro Surge, the scrutiny of voter rolls, or door knocks, she said, all of it is meant to show supporters that the administration is doing something and to save face. The administration, she said, made a huge promise that massive numbers of undocumented people were somehow voting in American elections and that something needed fixing, and it is now trying to whip up a frenzy. Its ultimate goal, she said, is to intimidate and scare people from wanting to participate and vote.

Omar claimed, however, that the raid is having the opposite effect. She said that on her way to the interview she was receiving calls about massive lines at early voting sites, and that staff helping people get to polling places were saying they did not have the capacity to keep up with requests for assistance. She believes the raid has inspired people to vote instead.

Since the raid Omar had largely avoided public scrutiny. She first appeared publicly on Tuesday night through a campaign video, and gave this interview the following day. In the meantime her husband, Tim Mynett, has been seen outside the residence walking their dog. A campaign aide has been seen bringing in food, and both of her daughters have arrived at the home two days apart, according to reports.

Fox News reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response, so the administration's formal explanation for the raid was not available when this report was written.

In the interview Omar made her position clear: her opponents would like to see her locked up or deported, but the bigger satisfaction for them would be if she tired of it all and left on her own. She said she will not do that, because she has a legal right to be a member of Congress. Ahead of the midterm elections, the investigation and the raid have become one of the most talked-about issues in American politics.