Ilhan Omar’s staff had her year of birth amended in public records after she was elected to Congress in 2018. The change came after a video alleging that she had lied about her age went viral. Attention is now turning to what federal agents were looking for when they searched her home in Washington on Monday.
According to New York Post, the change to her date of birth could be a key piece of evidence in the investigation into the Democrat from Minnesota. Critics argue that if Omar is in fact a year older than she has stated, she cannot have legally obtained US citizenship in 2000.
For years, Omar has been accused of providing false information about her age and nationality. She and her colleagues reject the allegations of immigration fraud.
Her year of birth was changed in 2019
The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library previously listed Omar’s date of birth as 4 October 1981. This date also appeared in reference works such as Wikipedia and in media outlets such as the BBC. The information remained unchanged throughout her term in the state legislature and for several months after she was elected to Congress.
However, in May 2019, Omar’s staff contacted the library and asked for her year of birth to be changed to 1982. This came after a video from a political opponent, who claimed that Omar was lying about her age, had gone viral.
The New York Post has reviewed emails documenting the correspondence.
“On 17 May 2019, library staff were informed by Representative Omar’s congressional staff that her year of birth was incorrect, and they asked us to change it to 1982,” wrote the director of the Minnesota Legislative Library in an email a few days after the change.
In a new email dated 24 May, the director wrote that Omar’s staff were working with Wikipedia, the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and other sources to correct the year of birth.
“As of today, the year of birth has not been corrected on the two websites I mentioned,” wrote the director.
The director also explained why the library had originally listed 1981 as her year of birth: the information was widely available on Wikipedia and in the Biographical Directory, and the library had therefore entered the date of birth without documentation.
Omar obtained citizenship through her father
In an interview with The Intercept in September 2018, Omar said that she obtained US citizenship through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, before she turned 18. She said that her father became a citizen in 2000, five years after he arrived in the US from war-torn Somalia.
AJ Kern, who stood against Omar in the Democratic primary in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in 2022 and finished fourth, believes that this explanation does not hold water.
Kern said in a telephone conversation with The Post that two conditions must be met for a child to be able to obtain citizenship through a parent: the father must have become a US citizen, and the child must still have been a minor.
“What I have found strongly suggests that neither of these conditions has been met,” said Kern.
She subsequently lodged a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and demanded documentation of Omar’s citizenship. The complaint was unsuccessful. According to Kern, a judge pointed out that it was Congress’s responsibility to verify the qualifications of its members.
Kern believes that the authorities may, amongst other things, be seeking documentation of her citizenship and her father’s naturalisation.
If Omar has provided an incorrect date of birth on official documents – for example, when renewing a passport or in a loan application – this could have legal consequences. The New York Post notes that the limitation period for such fraud is ten years.
President Donald Trump has previously levelled allegations against Omar. In December 2025, he referred to the matter in a post on Truth Social. Representatives of the administration have repeatedly stated that Omar is under investigation for possible immigration fraud.
Omar rejects the allegations and claims that Trump is engaging in political persecution.
“For ten years, Trump has directed baseless lies and smear campaigns against me. This is the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she wrote in a statement on X on Monday.
