Former President Barack Obama said the Trump administration was trying to deport Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, as punishment for her criticism of President Donald Trump.
Obama’s post on X focused on a dispute over her age. He said Omar was 17 when her father became a U.S. citizen, but the administration was pursuing an unsubstantiated theory that she was already 18. That distinction, he said, was the basis for questioning whether she had acquired citizenship automatically.
Federal agents searched Omar’s home, took personal records and seized her phone, according to Obama. He described the search as a hunt for a “nonexistent smoking gun.”
His allegation that the investigation was retaliation for Omar’s political criticism has not been independently verified.
Omar came to the United States with her father at age 12, Obama wrote. Her father became a naturalized citizen five years later. Because she was then 17, she acquired citizenship through him, according to his account. At 18, she would have needed to apply separately.
Obama said the government’s obligation not to target people for their beliefs or speech was a basic principle of American democracy.
“The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president,” he wrote.
Obama also recounted Omar’s path to Congress. After college, she worked as a community organizer and became the first Somali American legislator elected to public office in the United States, he wrote. She later won a congressional seat.
He described her as one of the administration’s fiercest critics and accused Trump of repeatedly singling her out as someone who did not belong in the country.
Obama compared the investigation with Justice Department actions against New York’s attorney general, a former FBI director and members of the Federal Reserve. He characterized those cases as efforts to pursue people Trump regarded as political enemies.
Those prosecutions had either stalled or been dismissed for lacking a legal basis, Obama said. He predicted a similar outcome for Omar, while warning that fighting the allegations would disrupt her life, bring legal expenses and take time away from her constituents.
Obama urged Americans to oppose such treatment regardless of their views about Omar’s politics. Allowing it to become routine, he warned, could encourage future presidents from either party to use federal power against their critics.
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