Ilhan Omar home raid and Haines attack: violence on officials rises

Omar forced from Washington home after raid and threats

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she can no longer live in her Washington, DC apartment after federal agents searched it last week. The raid was part of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to a Justice Department spokesperson, who cited a judicially authorised search warrant. NBC News reported that charges against Omar may include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork.

Omar, who came to the US from Somalia at age 12 and became a naturalised citizen in 2000, has long faced right-wing conspiracy theories about her immigration status. She has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them “disgusting lies.” But the threats have taken a toll. “Because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids visiting off and on, having people track them,” she told US outlet MS NOW. Omar, a Muslim and Minnesota representative since January 2019, has been a frequent target of former President Trump, who has threatened to deport her and called her a “sick person,” “extremist,” and “garbage.” In February, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Omar and Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib should be sent “back from where they came from.”

Australian MP loses legs in targeted attack

On Monday, Australian independent MP Helen Haines was hit by a car outside her electorate office. She lost both legs in the attack, which police called “targeted.” The driver, identified as Brendan Nugent, 43, allegedly drove past her, turned around, veered towards her, and pinned her against her car. Australia Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the driver reversed and then rammed her again.

Haines has championed climate action and improved working conditions as a lawmaker. Australian police warned of growing “online extremism” and a recorded rise in abuse, threats, and intimidation targeting lawmakers. Sofia Collignon, a reader in comparative politics at Queen Mary University London, said physical violence like the attack on Haines is still “relatively rare in terms of numbers.” But she noted that women, particularly women of colour in politics, face high levels of abuse on social media. “It’s very upsetting to see that more and more people in public life are paying a very high price for doing something that is a public good,” Collignon said.

Rising threats and a dangerous escalation

Collignon said social media has “lowered the bar” for bad-faith actors to threaten politicians, explaining the increase in volume of threats. “For example, what people consider to be acceptable ways of referring to politicians or to talk to them are more and more aggressive. They can find it acceptable to use more aggressive terms, partly because of the polarisation in politics,” she said. She added that this is not limited to one side of the political spectrum but is often observed on the fringes.

Research from the Centre for Economic Policy Research found that marginally elected women in Italy are about three times more likely to experience an attack than marginally elected men. A Princeton School of Public and International Affairs initiative tracking political violence in the US warned of a “dangerous escalation in the political violence risk environment” in 2025, citing high-profile assassinations and aggressive federal immigration operations. It said threats and harassment spiked, and demand for de-escalation support surged.

The violence is not new. In 2016, British MP Jo Cox was killed by a man who shouted “This is for Britain.” In 2021, Conservative MP David Amess was killed over his vote for air strikes on Syria. In 2024, Trump was shot in the ear at a rally. And in 2025, Trump ally Charlie Kirk was killed by a man who said he had “enough of his [Kirk’s] hatred.”