Ilhan Omar FBI raid triggered by text message on sister’s phone
By Gabrielle Fahmy
Published Oct. 17, 2026, 6:56 p.m. ET
A family text message on her sister’s phone is what triggered the raid on embattled “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) Washington, DC, home, according to a bombshell report.
Federal investigators seized the phone of Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, earlier this year, as they began looking into whether Somalia-born Omar conspired to commit immigration fraud when she came to the US, three people familiar with the matter told the New York Times.
The text messages were used to secure a federal judge’s approval for Department of Homeland Security agents to raid Omar’s home Monday, when they seized the congresswoman’s phone, passport, notebooks and personal computers.
Noor, who currently lives in Kenya, skipped a scheduled event in Rochester, Thursday, to promote her new book, “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story,” citing a “family emergency” amid the fallout from the raid.
Federal agents also went dumpster diving to collect DNA from Omar’s trash before the raid, sources told NewsNation.
“To me, if they are obviously trying to obtain DNA, then, yes, that is a very easy get, especially if it was discarded even in a trash can,” former FBI special agent Tracy Walder told the outlet.
The evidence is expected to go before a federal grand jury in Minnesota, to determine whether Omar and her family lied when they immigrated to the US in 1995.
The feds have issued subpoenas to several members of Omar’s family.
Omar and her family were admitted to the US as refugees after Somalia’s civil war, even though Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was a high-ranking colonel for the brutal dictator who killed an estimated 200,000 people before was overturned. Sources previously told The Post he misrepresented his identity when he came to the US.
The Minnesota lawmaker has claimed she became naturalized in 2000 at 17, through her father.
When asked about the seizure of Noor’s phone, a spokeswoman for Omar declined to comment directly, instead alleging a personal vendetta.
“Trump has spread lie after lie about the congresswoman in a desperate attempt to justify his extraordinary abuse of power,” Jackie Rogers told the NYT in a statement.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/17/us-news/raid-on-ilhan-omars-home-prompted-by-family-text-on-sisters-phone/