EXCLUSIVE: Ilhan Omar’s family risked a four-day sea voyage that killed scores of others to escape

EXCLUSIVE: Ilhan Omar’s family risked a four-day sea voyage that killed scores of others to escape Somalia’s civil war on the first leg of their journey to America, the Daily Mail can reveal, as her immigration story comes under renewed scrutiny.

Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th District, fled Somalia with her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, when she was around eight years old, boarding a traditional wooden fishing dhow to escape a violent militia as Somalia descended into civil war in 1991.

Omar’s mother, Fadhuma Abukar Haji Hussein, had died when she was two, leaving her father and grandfather to raise her as the youngest of seven children. Omar has said the family escaped together after their compound came under attack.

The family arrived in the port of Malindi, in northern Kenya, together with dozens of other refugees after a journey along the Horn of Africa in which boats sank, claiming more than 100 lives.

Omar’s early life and immigration history are at the centre of a federal criminal probe, with Department of Homeland Security investigators examining whether her late father lied or omitted information on immigration forms.

The probe hinges on Omar’s birth year, which has appeared as both 1981 and 1982 in official records. Her staff had it changed from 1981 to 1982 on her Minnesota legislature biography in May 2019.

The year is significant because Omar says she became a citizen in 2000 at 17 through her father’s naturalisation, a route closed to anyone 18 or over.

There are also unresolved questions over her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen alleged to be her brother, which she denies.

Federal agents raided her home in Washington, D.C., last week, seizing her phone and passport.

Read more: https://trib.al/PAnu7gv