U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been forced to leave her Washington, D.C. residence due to safety concerns after her home was raided amid growing threats of violence against politicians.
Last week, U.S. federal agents searched Omar’s home with what a Justice Department spokeswoman described as a “judicially authorized search warrant,” adding that the raid was part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.”
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Charges against Omar could include conspiracy and falsifying immigration documents, according to NBC News, which cited a person familiar with the matter.
Omar, a Somali-born Muslim, has long been the target of right-wing conspiracy theories over her immigration status, including allegations that she was married to her brother.
Minnesota lawmakers have repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them “disgusting lies.”
She has particularly drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who considers her a nuisance and has threatened to deport her.
Omar came to the United States in 1995 at the age of 12 and became a naturalized American citizen in 2000. He has served as a member of the Minnesota State Assembly since January 2019.
But on Wednesday, she told US news outlet MS NOW that after the attack on her Washington apartment, she could no longer live there.
“Because our address is public and I have received death threats, it is no longer possible for me to stay in that home and have my children visit often or have people follow me,” she said.
The attack on Omar’s home comes as violent attacks against politicians have become more frequent.
She herself has been subjected to physical violence. In January, Omar was at a town hall in Minneapolis calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an assailant sprayed her with an unknown substance.
On Monday this week, independent Australian lawmaker Helen Haines, who has championed climate change and advocated for better working conditions as an MP, was hit by a car outside her constituency office, sustaining serious injuries that required both legs to be amputated.
Australian police said it was a “targeted attack” and warned of a rise in “online extremism”, recording an increase in abuse, threats and intimidation targeting MPs.
“Dangerous escalation”
The violent attack on Haynes was particularly shocking. Her attacker, identified as Brendan Nugent, 43, allegedly drove past her, then swerved towards Haynes and pushed her against the car.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the driver then backed up and rammed the vehicle again.
Sophia Collignon, a comparative politics reader and director of the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London, said instances of physical violence like the attack on Mr Haines were still “relatively rare in numbers”.
“It’s very upsetting to see more and more people in the public sphere paying a very high price for doing things that are in the public interest,” Collignon told Al Jazeera.
However, online abuse often precedes physical attacks.
She said women, particularly women of color in politics, face high levels of abuse on social media, with alarming toll.
“We see from our research that this is influencing how they[women]behave in politics, whether they change the way they campaign, change the types of issues they advocate for, or sometimes refrain from participating in social media altogether,” she said.
According to a 2023 report by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), which evaluated 12 years of data on attacks on Italian politicians, “women who are narrowly elected are about three times more likely to be attacked than men who are narrowly elected.”
The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Bridging the Gap initiative, which tracks political violence in the United States, found that in 2025 there was a “dangerous escalation in the U.S. political violence risk environment, including a series of high-profile assassinations and an aggressive federal immigration operation.”
“Incidents of intimidation and harassment have soared, and leading community safety experts have reported that demand for de-escalation assistance has soared to new heights,” it added.
In Omar’s case, Trump has repeatedly targeted the lawmaker since his first term in office because of his Somali background.
He called her inflammatory language such as “sick,” “extremist,” and “trash.”
Other Muslim and progressive women in Congress have also been exposed to President Trump’s comments. In February, he said in a post on his Truth Social platform that Omar and Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib should be “deported from their countries of origin.”
But Trump himself has fought political violence. In 2024, Trump was shot in the ear by a rallygoer during a campaign rally.
Trump ally Charlie Kirk was then murdered in 2025 by a man named Tyler Robinson, who said he carried out the attack because he had “enough hatred for[Kirk].”
The cause is “intense political polarization”
Threats of online attacks against politicians have been linked to real-life murders for some time.
In 2016, British MP Jo Cox was murdered in her constituency by a man named Thomas Mair who shouted “This is for Britain” while campaigning to remain in the European Union ahead of the referendum.
In 2021, British Conservative MP David Amess was murdered by a man named Ali Harbi Ali. Ali Harbi Ali claimed he targeted the lawmaker over his vote for airstrikes in Syria.
In 2026, Anne Widecombe, a former Conservative Party MP and spokesperson for the far-right Reform UK party, was murdered by a man named Joshua Kelly. Kelly is charged with being involved in preparing “acts of terrorism”, including against Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party.
Collignon said he believes social media has “lowered the bar” for malicious actors to threaten politicians, which explains the increase in the volume of threats.
“For example, the words that people think are acceptable when referring to or talking to politicians are becoming increasingly offensive. Partly because of political polarization, people may feel that it’s acceptable to use more offensive language,” she says.
“This is a problem not only observed on the right or left, but also frequently on the fringes. They feel that it is acceptable to use unacceptable words and actions in order to pursue their own political goals. This means that it is in some sense acceptable for them to threaten politicians.”
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) 2026 Annual Report, which analyzed 2,653 violent incidents targeting local government officials around the world, local government officials face a “persistent and evolving threat of violence in 2025.”
According to the data, recorded incidents worldwide grew from 88 countries and territories in 2025 to 97 countries and territories in 2024.
“Over the past five years, ACLED has recorded at least 13,900 incidents in 138 countries and territories,” the report said. “Local government officials are often lightning rods for broader social discontent. Massive protests in recent years have directed their frustration and anger at local governments seen as the nerve endings of failed and corrupt states.”
“Particularly in Europe and the United States, the toxic combination of intense political polarization and unchecked competition for political advantage has exposed politicians, especially local elected officials, to increasing trends of harassment, abuse, and violence.”
Additionally, a 2026 report from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global international organization of national parliaments, found that of the 519 parliamentarians who participated in five country case studies and participated in a global survey, 71 percent of all respondents reported having “experienced violence by members of the public online, offline, or both.”
It found that “violence is concentrated online, with 65 percent to 77 percent of MPs across case studies reporting online abuse.”
But Collignon said the line between online threats of violence and physical assault is becoming increasingly blurred.
“Let’s say I’m checking my social media accounts at home. Home is a safe place,” she says. “But when my phone constantly displays abuse, threats of violence, and extremely disgusting behavior, I am receiving all these attacks in my living room.
“We are currently operating in a space where boundaries are blurred. I don’t think we should think of online violence as something that only happens in the digital realm. It affects how individuals live their daily lives and engage with politics.”
