Trump’s obsession with Ilhan Omar has reached a dangerous new level | Arwa Mahdawi

What do you think it is about Ilhan Omar, exactly, that seems to get under Donald Trump’s tangerine-tinted skin? The president has claimed he has a problem with the progressive Democratic congresswoman because she is “unpatriotic” to the US and “disrespectful … to Israel”. However, the extent of his animus towards Omar, the first Somali American in Congress, suggests there’s more to it. Trump has insisted he is “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world”, so I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s brown and Muslim. Truly, it’s a mystery.

Whatever the reason, Trump’s not a fan. The president has plenty of enemies, but few have been attacked as ferociously and consistently over the years as Omar. He’s called her “garbage”, among other nasty names, suggested (without evidence) that she married her brother, and said she “should be thrown the hell out of our country”. His supporters have echoed his calls to deport Omar, who fled war-torn Somalia as a child and became a naturalised US citizen at 17.

Now Trump’s obsession with Omar has reached a dangerous new level. Trump isn’t just throwing out insults any more; his administration seems intent on stripping the congresswoman of her US citizenship and deporting her. Last Monday, 22 days before the November midterms in which Omar is seeking re-election, federal agents raided her house in Washington DC. Her phone was seized and grand jury subpoenas were reportedly issued to some of her relatives as part of an investigation concerning her immigration paperwork. Trump, by the way, denied any involvement. Just a curious coincidence that one of his biggest nemeses is now being treated like a criminal.

As House Democratic leaders have said, the raid on Omar’s house “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponisation of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries”. But it also raises another question: is this “just” a stunt designed to embarrass and intimidate Omar before the midterms? Or is there a real possibility that the congresswoman could be denaturalised and deported?

“Certainly, if the evidence points that way, that could happen,” Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, told Fox News over the weekend when asked about Omar being deported. “We’ll let the evidence lead where it leads, but she’ll be held to the same standard you and I are held: if she violated the law, then she’ll be held accountable,” Homan added.

Oh, please. I know the Mar-a-Lago set are big on Botox, but I can’t believe Homan was able to preach about accountability with a straight face. Not many people are convicted of 34 felonies and face no jail time. Trump, however, is in the White House rather than prison because the supreme court’s conservative majority (which he helped create) found that former presidents are entitled to a degree of immunity from criminal prosecution.

The US government has every right to uphold its immigration laws, but its appetite seems to vary considerably depending on the person. If Homan really is so keen on accountability, may I suggest he take a look at the Trump megadonor Elon Musk? The tech mogul’s brother, Kimbal Musk, has publicly joked about the fact that the brothers briefly worked in the US without proper documentation in the 1990s. (Elon said it was a “grey area”.) And then there’s Melania Trump: in 2016, the Associated Press reported the first lady was paid for 10 modelling jobs in the US before she had legal permission to work in the country. (Melania has denied ever violating the terms of her immigration status.)

Omar was just a teenager when her father filled out the paperwork that led to them both being naturalised. I obviously have no idea if there were any errors in that. But I can tell you that this “investigation” is not about accountability. It is a terrifying abuse of power that reflects the way in which the Trump administration is weaponising the immigration system to stamp out dissent. We’ve already seen Trump deport noncitizen student activists to crack down on pro-Palestinian speech. Now he’s applying that strategy to Omar, a sitting congresswoman. As Barack Obama warned at the weekend, “If this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her.” Indeed it won’t; Trump is just getting started.