DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the Ilhan Omar immigration probe a "strong case" after agents served multiple warrants, including at her D.C. home, a step Omar calls political weaponization.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said federal agents executed several search warrants on the same day they searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington residence, and he described the ongoing case as solid enough to take before a grand jury.
Mullin made the remarks Friday on the “Charlie Kirk Show” podcast hosted by Andrew Kolvet. He stressed that a judge signed off on the warrants and that the work centers on enforcing immigration law, not politics. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, has not been charged.
Investigators from Homeland Security Investigations, working with the Justice Department, are examining possible fraud tied to immigration documents submitted by Omar’s family decades ago, when she was a child and her late father handled the paperwork.
Federal agents searched the congresswoman’s D.C. home as part of that review. DHS also took her personal cellphone, and multiple relatives received grand jury subpoenas, according to earlier reporting.
Mullin pushed back hard against claims that the probe is a political hit job.
He told listeners the department would not have moved unless the evidence cleared that bar.
"We had a judge sign it, and we expect to be able to take the case to a grand jury. But I will tell you, we wouldn't move forward, and President Trump didn't want to move forward either, unless we knew that it couldn't be politically driven. Now they want to try making it political driven. This individual wants to try making it about themselves. This was about enforcing once again our nation's laws, and it's a strong case."
That is how CBS News reported Mullin’s account of the warrants and the case posture.
Mullin made clear Omar’s home was not the only target.
"She wasn't, or it wasn't the only place we served the warrant. There was multiple other warrants served on that same day."
He did not name the other locations. The warrants landed on a Monday. President Trump, asked about the matter that same day, left the charging decision with prosecutors.
Trump said, "I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ."
Earlier coverage detailed how agents seized her phone during the search tied to the immigration-document review. Omar denied any wrongdoing and said she “will not be silenced.”
Omar answered on X by framing the case as retaliation.
"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 has cast the scrutiny as a decade-long campaign against her. Mullin rejected that framing and said the evidence, not politics, drove the decision to seek judicial authorization and prepare a grand-jury presentation.
Federal officials rarely speak in public about open criminal investigations beyond confirming a court-authorized search. Grand-jury rules and due-process limits usually keep details quiet. Mullin’s comments went further than the typical line.
Mullin’s latest comments track his earlier public stance that the matter remains active and serious.
On the podcast, Mullin walked through a broader scenario involving coordinated false paperwork.
He described a situation in which one person files fraudulent immigration forms and others then enter under that false background. In that setting, he said, prosecutors could look at racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly called RICO, the federal law used against organized criminal enterprises.
"If someone... fills out their paperwork illegally, and they claim that they are this person and this is their background, and then underneath that individual, a lot of other people come in. And I'm just saying hypothetically across a whole bunch of cases that's out there, then that can be considered a RICO case, right? Because there was conspiracy to deceive the American government, and therefore everything else that came in with it could then be looked at [part of] the same case."
He labeled the discussion hypothetical. He did not say RICO charges have been filed against Omar. Criminal RICO cases generally face a five-year statute of limitations, though ongoing conspiracies can raise separate timing questions. A 1957 Supreme Court ruling, Grunewald v. United States, held that prosecutors cannot stretch a conspiracy forever simply because people covered it up after it ended.
Those legal boundaries matter because the documents at issue reach back to Omar’s childhood. Any charging theory will have to fit both the facts and the clock.
The public record, as laid out in the reporting, is straightforward on several points. A judge authorized the warrants. Agents served more than one on the same day. HSI and the Justice Department are handling the matter together. Relatives were subpoenaed. Omar’s phone was taken. No charges have been announced against the congresswoman.
Mullin says the case is strong and was cleared of political motive before it advanced. Omar says the opposite, that the government is targeting an enemy and trying to silence her. Both positions are now on the record.
Prior statements from the secretary had already flagged an ongoing federal probe tied to alleged immigration fraud questions. The multi-warrant day and the grand-jury plan add operational weight to that description.
Taxpayers fund a system that depends on honest paperwork. When agents obtain judicial warrants, seize devices, and prepare a grand-jury case, the process is following the law’s ordinary path. Claims of pure politics have to answer the judge’s signature and the other locations hit the same day.
Immigration rules either bind everyone or they become suggestions. A strong case presented to a grand jury is how a serious system tests the difference.
