Sahra Noor canceled a Minnesota book-tour stop after a family emergency, days after federal agents raided sister Rep. Ilhan Omar’s D.C. home in a citizenship paperwork probe.
Fox News Digital arrived Thursday night at the Intercultural Student Center at the University of Minnesota Rochester and found the space empty. Noor, the older sister of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., had been scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. appearance on her tour for “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story.”
Garden Party Books, the Rochester bookstore that posted the flyer and backed the event, told reporters the stop was called off because of a Noor “family emergency.” RSVPs had gone out through a Facebook flyer and QR code. No cancellation, reschedule, or relocation notice reached the news outlet before it showed up.
The no-show landed in the middle of a rough week for the Omar family. Early Monday, around 6 a.m., Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a search warrant at the congresswoman’s Washington, D.C., home.
The raid stems from an investigation into whether Omar or her late father, Nur Mohamed, fraudulently filled out her citizenship paperwork decades ago. Two sources said the probe could lead to the congresswoman’s denaturalization. She also faces a separate inquiry into her financial disclosures.
A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed the operation to the Washington Examiner, saying Homeland Security Investigations “executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice” in the Washington area Monday morning as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that agents seized Omar’s phone, passport, and computers. That seizure is part of the same immigration paperwork case that has already drawn close scrutiny of the congresswoman’s naturalization file, including the recovery of her cellphone during the D.C. search.
Sahra Noor was reportedly subpoenaed in connection with the immigration investigation into her sister. Fox News Digital reached out to Noor and did not hear back by publication.
Omar has not been seen in public since the Monday raid, and rumors circulated that she had fled the country. Her office framed the search as political payback rather than routine law enforcement.
In a statement carried by Just the News, Omar said:
"I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. 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. I will not be silenced."
Her communications director, Jacklyn Rogers, added:
"This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.... The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong."
Those lines match the language Omar used elsewhere, calling the search an “outrageous abuse of power” and an “unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.” The warrant itself was court-approved and tied to a criminal fraud investigation into immigration paperwork, not a free-floating political stunt.
On Wednesday, Tim Mynett, described as Omar’s husband, was asked outside the D.C. residence about the rumors she had left the country. He snapped at the question and insisted he had “NO CONCERNS” about the federal immigration investigation while defending her immigration timeline on camera.
That public defense came as questions mounted about Omar’s whereabouts after the predawn search of the couple’s home and the seizure of travel documents. Mynett’s appearance did not clear up where the congresswoman was or when she would next appear in public.
The family arrived in the United States as refugees in the 1990s. Federal investigators are now examining whether the citizenship paperwork filed decades ago was truthful, the core of the case that put agents at Omar’s door Monday morning, as detailed in coverage of the HSI search of her D.C. residence.
Noor’s book launched Aug. 13, 2026, at a Nairobi bookstore. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya, according to her LinkedIn profile as reported. She appeared at a festival in Cape Town, South Africa, in early September, then rolled through Minnesota stops: Minneapolis on Oct. 1, the University of Minnesota five days later, and St. Paul on Oct. 7.
The Rochester event was next on the U.S. leg. Garden Party Books, University of Minnesota Bookstores, and the Rochester Public Library were listed as “proud supporters.” The flyer cast Noor as a “poet, storyteller and health system leader” and the book as a “story of migration, motherhood, grief and family.”
Her next listed date is Oct. 23 at the Somali Community Cultural Innovation Hub in Seattle. Whether that stop holds after the Rochester cancellation and the reported subpoena remains an open question.
Investigators are weighing whether the citizenship findings could support stripping Omar of her naturalization, a step already under discussion in reporting on the possible denaturalization track after the home raid. No charges or denaturalization filing have been announced.
Omar’s office insists she has done nothing wrong. Federal agents, armed with a judge’s warrant, still took her phone, passport, and computers and left her sister’s Minnesota appearance dark on short notice. Taxpayers and lawful immigrants play by the rules every day. Members of Congress do not get a special carve-out when the paperwork is the question.
