Obama condemns Trump’s reported plot to revoke Ilhan Omar’s citizenship

Former US President Barack Obama has condemned the Trump administration’s reported efforts to revoke Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s US citizenship and deport her, warning that the move threatens a fundamental principle of American democracy.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Obama said the administration’s actions against Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota, violate “a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.”

Obama’s remarks came nearly a week after US Department of Homeland Security agents raided Omar’s home.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that the raid was part of an effort to build “a case to strip her of her US citizenship and ultimately deport her.”

“To understand why this is so appalling, it’s important to know the facts,” Obama wrote.

“Congresswoman Omar came to this country with her father when she was 12 years old. Five years later, her father became a naturalized citizen. If Ilhan had been 18 at the time, she would have had to apply for citizenship separately. But because she was 17, she became a naturalized citizen automatically.”

Obama accused President Donald Trump of repeatedly portraying Omar as someone who does not belong in the United States, while relying on an “unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized” to pursue the reported deportation effort.

“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,” Obama wrote.

“And it’s not the first time this has happened. Under President Trump, the Justice Department has repeatedly gone after those he considers his political enemies—from the Attorney General of New York, to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve.”

Obama warned that allowing such actions to go unchallenged could establish a dangerous precedent that future administrations might also exploit, regardless of political affiliation.

“If this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with [Omar],” Obama wrote, “or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.”

Trump rose to political prominence in the previous decade by promoting a racist conspiracy theory falsely claiming that Obama was born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible to serve as US president.