Congresswoman Ilhan Omar‘s past has been repeatedly scrutinized online, but very few truly know her actual history. Omar is a member of the Democratic Party and serves as the deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Over the years, she has voiced her support for humanitarian efforts, including raising the minimum wage for workers, universal healthcare, and student loan debt forgiveness. She has even called for the abolition of ICE, which has made Omar a fresh target of MAGA supporters.

Omar has been repeatedly accused of immigration fraud by marrying her own brother. JD Vance commented on the matter, stating that the DOJ is now investigating.  “You read the things about Ilhan Omar… who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance said, according to the publication. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law.”

Omar, a staunch critic of the Trump administration, has denied the allegations. The Congresswoman first addressed the allegations in December, made by Trump as she wrote on X: “He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead.”

Omar’s supporters have stated that the Trump administration is orchestrating a conspiracy to frame the Congresswoman owing to her left-leaning views.

That said, Ilhan Omar’s tragic past is the reason for her humanitarian views. The Somali native lost her mother at a very young age when war broke out in Somalia. Omar’s family fled her hometown when armed gunmen stormed her family’s house. This led to the family arriving at a refugee camp in Kenya, where, she has said, she came to understand ‘the deep meaning of hunger and death.’

In 1995, Omar’s family received asylum in the U.S. and arrived in New York to build a better life. Omar was just 12 when she arrived in the U.S. and had missed out on years of schooling. However, the future Congresswoman was determined to make a name for herself and worked hard, while her father worked as a taxi driver.

As a kid, Omar was subject to bullying owing to her Somali appearance and hijab. She would get pushed down stairs by bullies, but her father helped her look past it. “They are doing something to you because they feel threatened in some way by your existence,” Omar’s father told her.

Ilhan Omar officially became a U.S. citizen in 2000 when she was just 17 years old. Following her graduation from North Dakota State University, Omar made a name for herself and became a Congresswoman after years of fighting and surviving in America. Over the years, the Congresswoman has faced multiple death threats as well, with the FBI even making arrests on the matter.