House Majority Whip Tom Emmer says Rep. Ilhan Omar should serve prison time and leave the country if a federal probe proves she lied to gain U.S. citizenship, after agents searched her D.C. home.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that Rep. Ilhan Omar should face hard consequences if investigators confirm she or her father lied on federal paperwork to obtain her citizenship. Emmer, the No. 3 Republican in the House and the highest-ranking House lawmaker from Omar’s home state, did not say much about what accountability should look like.
Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home early Monday morning under a judicially authorized warrant and took her cellphone and other possessions. The probe centers on allegations that Omar or her father misstated her birth year on immigration paperwork so she could claim derivative citizenship as a minor when her father naturalized in 2000.
Emmer tied the raid to a simple standard: if the lies are proven, the law should apply the same way it would to anyone else.
In the exclusive interview, Emmer said proven fraud should bring both punishment and removal. He framed it as basic enforcement, not a political stunt.
Emmer told Fox News Digital:
"I would say first she should probably serve time in the gray bar motel and then get the h*** out of here. She should go back to where she came from."
He added a second condition tied directly to the citizenship claim:
"If it's determined that she lied to gain citizenship, then absolutely, she should go back to the front of the line."
That second line matters. Emmer is not arguing for a free pass after a prison term. He is arguing that a citizenship obtained by fraud is not a finished deal, and that the person who secured it by lying should not keep the benefits.
The Minnesota Republican also pushed back on claims that the search itself was illegitimate. A judge had to find probable cause that a federal crime had been committed before agents could move. Emmer noted the scrutiny that comes with a high-profile target.
Emmer said:
"That judge had to determine that there was probable cause that a federal crime has been committed. And I'll tell you what, as long as it was Ilhan Omar, it was going to be scrutinized to the very detail."
He continued:
"So the fact that they issued the warrant in the first place and then executed it, I mean maybe after all these years, someone is finally going to hold Ilhan Omar accountable."
Rumors about Omar’s background have circulated for years, Emmer said. The warrant and the search put those questions into an official channel instead of leaving them as political talk.
Agents carried out the search earlier this week, described as early Monday morning, at Omar’s residence in Washington. They seized her cellphone and other possessions. The Department of Justice indicated a judicially authorized search warrant was being acted on. No charges, indictment, or final finding of fraud is reported as completed.
The timing landed with less than three weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3, as Omar seeks another term in Minnesota’s heavily Democratic 5th Congressional District. Allies and critics called the action unprecedented in that window. The core allegation remains specific: that her birth year was misstated so she could qualify as a minor under U.S. law when her father became a citizen in 2000, when she was believed to be 17, and that she was actually 18.
Omar’s family fled Somalia in the late 1990s. Her father naturalized in 2000. The derivative-citizenship path for a minor is the legal hinge of the reported investigation. If she was already an adult, that path would not have applied in the same way. That is the question investigators are testing against paperwork and records.
Related reporting has tracked the same probe’s wider footprint, including how federal agents searched Omar’s D.C. home as part of the immigration-fraud inquiry.
Federal investigators have also moved beyond the residence itself. Coverage of the case has detailed steps against family members as the inquiry widened.
One thread follows how investigators subpoenaed Omar’s relatives while the immigration probe reached her D.C. home.
Omar answered the raid on X. She said she was unharmed and cast the search as retaliation rather than law enforcement.
Omar wrote:
"I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation."
She closed with a refusal to stand down: "I will not be silenced." Fox News Digital reached out to her congressional office for comment. No response is reported in the available account.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and top deputies issued a joint statement in the same key. They called the raid "deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries." Democrats, including Jeffries, denounced the probe as political persecution.
That framing treats a judge-signed warrant and an HSI search as proof of a plot. Emmer’s point runs the other direction: probable cause had to clear a court first, and a member of Congress does not get a special shield when immigration paperwork is under review.
Omar is a member of the House group often labeled the "Squad," alongside Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. She remains a prominent progressive voice and a frequent target of conservative criticism on immigration, foreign policy, and accountability. None of that status cancels document requirements that apply to every other applicant.
Derivative citizenship for a minor is not a vibe check. It turns on age, parent naturalization, and truthful filings. If the birth year on the paperwork was wrong in a way that manufactured eligibility, the fraud question is real even when the person later won elections. Emmer’s position is that proof should bring the ordinary results: custody, then removal, and a return to the back of the line.
The public has watched high-profile immigration cases stall, soften, or disappear when the subject has political allies. A warrant executed at a sitting member’s home is rare. Emmer treated that rarity as evidence the system finally moved, not as evidence the system cheated.
Fallout from the search reached Minnesota quickly. Separate coverage noted that Sahra Noor canceled a Minnesota book stop after the HSI raid on Omar’s D.C. home.
Omar’s husband also addressed the search in public remarks. Reporting recorded that Tim Mynett said he had no concerns after agents searched the D.C. home.
Legal analysts have separately mapped how hard it is to unwind citizenship even when fraud allegations surface. One detailed look explained why a former prosecutor sees a steep climb to strip citizenship in related fraud theories. Emmer’s comments still start earlier in the chain: if the probe proves a lie used to obtain citizenship, jail and removal should be on the table.
Emmer’s strongest process point is also the simplest. Agents did not invent a warrant on a whim. A judge had to conclude there was probable cause a federal crime had been committed. Seizing a cellphone and other possessions is what a search warrant often authorizes when records and communications may hold evidence. Democrats’ "weaponization" line skips that judicial gate.
Voters can hold two thoughts at once. Omar is entitled to defend herself and to demand a fair process. She is not entitled to redefine a probable-cause warrant as illegitimate solely because it landed on a Trump critic. If the birth-year allegation collapses under evidence, she walks away stronger. If it holds, Emmer’s remedy, time served, then removal, matches how serious immigration fraud is supposed to be treated when the subject is not famous.
The investigation remains open. No conviction is on the books in the reported facts. The raid, the seizures, the subpoenas to relatives, and the competing public statements are the record as it stands. Emmer used that record to state a conditional rule with no special carve-out for a sitting member of Congress from Minnesota.
Equal enforcement is not revenge. If the paperwork lies are proven, Omar should face the same justice any other offender would, including the gray-bar motel and a ticket home.
