Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional staff asked state officials to revise her birth year shortly after she entered Congress in 2018 — a change that has intensified scrutiny over her immigration history and citizenship timeline.
For years, public records — including the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Wikipedia, and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress — listed Omar’s birth year as 1981. That date would make her 18 or 19 when she became a U.S. citizen in 2000, contradicting her claim that she was 17 at the time. Under U.S. immigration law, derivative citizenship through a parent is only available to minors, making the age discrepancy potentially significant.
In May 2019, Omar’s staff contacted the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library and requested that her birth year be changed to 1982. The library director later confirmed the update in an email, noting that the original 1981 date had been used because it appeared widely across public reference sites — not because it had been independently verified. Omar’s staff also said they were working to correct her birth year on Wikipedia and in the Biographical Directory of Congress, though those updates had not yet been made at the time.
The timing of the change has drawn renewed attention because it coincides with broader federal scrutiny of Omar’s immigration history. Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted an early‑morning raid at her Washington, D.C., home as part of an ongoing investigation, though officials have not disclosed the focus of the probe. Omar, who was born in Somalia, maintains that she became a citizen through her father’s naturalization and has repeatedly denied allegations of immigration fraud.
As questions continue to circulate, the updated birth year — and the circumstances surrounding its correction — remain central to debates over Omar’s path to citizenship and the accuracy of her public biography.
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