US immigration authorities raid home of Democratic Trump critic Ilhan Omar

Federal agents, part of the U.S. Immigration Enforcement, have searched the home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. A clear attempt to target political opponents and weaponize law enforcement to Omar posted to social media after the search, noting that the U.S. president has long targeted her. Omar is seeking re-election in next month's midterms. Asked about the case, Donald Trump, for his part, said that Omar was a terrible person who comes from a country that is a non-country. Omar was born in Somalia. She is one of the most vocal opponents of Trump in Congress. Our correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson, tells us more about what exactly went down. Well, there was an early morning raid in the eastern parts of Washington, D.C. The Department of Justice said that they had executed a judicially authorized search warrant. Now, that is significant because it means that they have been presented, the DOJ has presented a judge with evidence to find probable cause, And that judge has agreed to allow this warrant to go ahead. Sources were saying that it was to do with her immigration paperwork that was filled out by her late father, dating back to when she was a child, which would explain why Homeland Security investigations were the agency conducting that raid that we saw. Of course, Omar was born in Somalia. She came to the U.S. when she was eight years old with her family fleeing war there. She became a citizen of the U.S. in the year 2000 when she was aged 17. Now, normally, as Donald Trump has said with many things, he said he had nothing to do with the investigation into Omar. He did, though, call her totally crooked. And last week, Donald Trump wrote on social media that Minnesota, which is the state where Omar is a representative, is being taken over by Somali immigrants and said, the people of Minnesota must fight back. Well, Omar responded saying, make no mistake, this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For 10 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. So Omar running once again for re-election this year, as of course the House terms are every two years. And this is likely to, of course, have an impact on her re-election as well, whether it's for the better or for the worse in her case. We wait and see as that election day approaches. Indeed, it could have an impact on her election. But where could this investigation go from here, Fraser? Well, that's really what we're waiting to see. This is not the first time that DOJ have sought a warrant and even been granted a warrant as well, only for it to turn up with nothing. If you think back to the election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, which had been taken by some of the authorities here in the United States, we saw Tulsi Gabbard overseeing that effectively while she was down there in her capacity as DNI. that raised some eyebrows as well. But ultimately, nothing really came of those investigations that we're aware of. Of course, there's also been James Comey, who has also been served with various lawsuits, which have not really ended up in any kind of significant legal ramifications at the moment. So this could end up like that, or it could end up quite significant. The American president and his officials have said that they will not hesitate to enforce this law if they believe that the law has been broken. They call this a criminal investigation and indeed breaking immigration law. They are deeming it as a criminal offense and they say that nobody is above the law so that therefore they will strip her potentially of her citizenship and also deport her if it's deemed that there was some kind of fraud that took place on her on her application back when she was just eight years old and it's also worth noting that the timing of this of course is close to the elections and normally something like this would not take place within 60 days of an election deadline and it was actually a top of officials in DOJ that consulted about this and ultimately decided to move ahead despite the fact that this could have electoral ramifications as I mentioned.