Obama Says Omar Became a Citizen at 17; Records Listed Her Birth Year as 1981 Until Her Staff Requested a Change in 2019
Former President Barack Obama on Sunday defended Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., against a federal investigation into her citizenship, writing that she became a U.S. citizen "automatically" because she was 17 when her father was naturalized. That account matches the Oct. 4, 1982, birth date that appears on official records today. Until May 2019, the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress listed her birth date as Oct. 4, 1981, according to archived copies of both records reviewed by The Digital Free Press.
The library changed the year after Omar's congressional staff told it the 1981 date was wrong, according to library emails first reported by the New York Post on Oct. 13.
Omar's side has said the 1981 date was a mistake. "Omar has previously said a clerical error led her birth year to be 1981," the Washington Examiner reported in a story published Monday by the Denver Gazette. Omar has denied wrongdoing, and she has not been charged with a crime.
What Obama Said
In a lengthy statement posted publicly on X on Sunday, Oct. 18, Obama said the Trump administration was targeting Omar for her political views. "To understand why this is so appalling, it's important to know the facts," he 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 wrote.
He went on: "Now the Administration is actively trying to deport Congresswoman Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and therefore is not a citizen. Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case."
Obama called Omar "a law-abiding elected official" and said the "full weight of the federal government" was being brought down on her "because she has dared to criticize the president." His statement did not say what records he relied on for her age.
NBC News, which reported the statement Sunday evening, said Obama called the administration's treatment of Omar a "transparent" effort to intimidate her. "The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar's political views," Obama wrote, according to NBC News.
The White House rejected Obama's charge. "Unlike Joe Biden, President Trump has not weaponized the Department of Justice against his political foes," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The Department is focused on restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe." President Trump has said the matter is up to the Justice Department. "I've always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me," he told reporters, according to Fox News.
What the Ilhan Omar Birth Year Records Showed
The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library keeps a public profile of every state lawmaker. Omar served in the Minnesota House from 2017 to 2019. Archived copies of her profile saved by the Internet Archive on Feb. 4, 2019, and April 13, 2019, list her date of birth as "10/4/1981." A copy saved on July 27, 2019, lists "10/4/1982."
The newer version added a note that remains on the library's site today: "Her birth year is correct. It is incorrectly reported as 1981 in other sources. As of May 24, 2019, Rep. Omar's congressional staff are working with Wikipedia and the U.S. House to correct her birth year in those sources."
The Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress made the same change around the same time. An archived copy of Omar's entry from April 14, 2019, says she was "born in Mogadishu, Somalia, October 4, 1981." A copy from July 14, 2019, says "October 4, 1982."
The New York Post reported on Oct. 13 that it had reviewed emails from the library's director. "On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar's congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982," the director wrote, according to the Post. The director also wrote that the original 1981 year had been entered because it was "widely available—in Wikipedia and the Biographical Directory–and so we added that birthdate without documentation," the Post reported.
A deputy director of the library, David Schmidtke, told the fact-checking site Snopes that congressional staff had contacted the library about the birth date, but that "we do not have supporting documentation, as the information was 'self-reported.'" He said "the library does not independently verify birthdates before publishing or updating them."
Omar's side has said the change fixed an error. "According to The Washington Post, Omar said that requests to change her birth year were due to it being incorrect, not to cover up the truth," Snopes reported on Oct. 15. Snopes, which rated the claim that she changed the year in official records as true, also reported finding a 2000 Edison High School yearbook that lists Omar among the juniors in the class of 2001. Snopes called that "not definitive proof" but said it "supports the claim" that she was not yet an adult in 2000.
Why the Year Matters
Omar has said for years that she became a citizen through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, when he was naturalized in 2000. "I became a citizen actually before I turned 18," she told The Intercept in a September 2018 interview, as quoted by the New York Post. The Associated Press reported in October 2018 that Omar "became a citizen in 2000, when she was 17." Her father died in 2020.
In 2000, children could get citizenship through a parent's naturalization under a section of immigration law known as former INA 321, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Under that law, the child had to be under 18 when the parent or parents naturalized, among other conditions. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 replaced that section with a new rule that took effect on Feb. 27, 2001, according to USCIS. The new rule also requires the child to be under 18.
The dates make the difference. Under the 1982 birth date, Omar would have been 17 until Oct. 4, 2000. Under the 1981 date once listed in the records, she would have turned 18 in October 1999. The exact date of her father's naturalization in 2000 has not been made public. The Digital Free Press asked Omar's office for it.
The question of documents goes back years. In the fall of 2018, Omar's campaign told the Associated Press that she and others could not get birth certificates because the infrastructure in Somalia collapsed during the country's civil war, according to the AP's Oct. 17, 2018, report.
The Investigation
Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's home in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 12, as part of a federal investigation into her immigration status. The Wall Street Journal reported that agents took items including her cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and her passport, according to the New York Post. The Post reported that prosecutors in Minnesota are leading the immigration fraud investigation, and that more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas have gone to members of Omar's family.
Omar has denied the allegations. "For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation," she said in a statement on X on Oct. 12. Her office told the Journal: "President Trump would love to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress. There is no basis for this," according to the New York Post.
What TDFP Asked
The Digital Free Press asked Obama's office on Sunday what records or sources the former president relied on when he wrote that Omar was 17 when her father was naturalized; whether he or his team knew that the Minnesota library had listed 1981 until Omar's staff requested the change in May 2019; and whether Omar, her office or anyone on her behalf briefed him or gave him documents about her birth year before the statement was posted.
Obama's office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
TDFP also asked Omar's office what documents establish Oct. 4, 1982, as her birth date; whether it is still the case that she has no birth certificate; what documentation, if any, her staff gave the library, the congressional directory or Wikipedia in May 2019; whether her office briefed Obama; and for the date and record of her father's naturalization.
Omar's office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
None of the allegations against Omar has been proven, and no charges have been announced. The Digital Free Press takes no position on the investigation and will update this story with any response.
Sources: Barack Obama, statement on X (@BarackObama), Oct. 18, 2026; NBC News, "Obama calls Trump officials' investigation of Ilhan Omar 'appalling,'" Oct. 18, 2026; Washington Examiner, "Obama rips 'appalling' investigation of Ilhan Omar," Oct. 18, 2026, as published by the Denver Gazette, Oct. 19, 2026; Fox News, "Obama backs Ilhan Omar amid probe, accuses Trump admin of 'appalling' targeting in lengthy statement," Oct. 18, 2026; New York Post, "Rep. Ilhan Omar's staff got her birthdate changed officially after being elected to Congress: records," Oct. 13, 2026, and Oct. 15, 2026, report on the search of Omar's home (citing The Wall Street Journal); Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, Omar legislator record (current, and Internet Archive copies of Feb. 4, April 13 and July 27, 2019); Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, Omar entry (Internet Archive copies of April 14 and July 14, 2019); Associated Press, Oct. 17, 2018; Snopes, Oct. 15, 2026; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Policy Manual, Vol. 12, Part H, Chapters 4 and 7.
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