A newly reported assessment of the federal investigation involving Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar suggests the greatest potential threat to her citizenship may have little to do with the allegation that she married her brother.
Current and former immigration officials told the New York Post that investigators would have stronger legal grounds to examine the circumstances surrounding Omar’s acquisition of American citizenship and the information supplied by her father.
White House border czar Tom Homan recently confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations is conducting a criminal investigation involving Omar, although neither he nor the Department of Homeland Security has publicly identified its precise scope.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin separately said investigators were examining Omar’s broader family immigration history and predicted that “something’s going to happen,” but officials have announced no charges or formal findings.
Omar has repeatedly denied allegations that Ahmed Elmi, the British national she legally married in 2009, was her brother or that their marriage was arranged to obtain immigration benefits.
The allegation has circulated for years among political opponents and some members of Minnesota’s Somali community, but it has never been established through a criminal conviction, civil judgment or publicly released government finding.
One former immigration lawyer told the Post that even if the marriage allegation were proven, it would not automatically provide legal grounds to deport Omar because she was already an American citizen.
The attorney also argued that the ordinary limitations period would create a major obstacle to prosecuting alleged marriage fraud stemming from a relationship that legally ended with the couple’s divorce in 2017.
Anonymous sources instead pointed to Omar’s citizenship history, including her reported acquisition of citizenship through her father, Nur Said Mohamed, when she was a teenager in 2000.
Omar has said she arrived in the United States as a refugee after her family fled Somalia and became an American citizen at age 17 through her naturalized father.
That timeline matters because the citizenship law governing children at the time generally required the relevant conditions to be satisfied before the child reached 18, along with additional requirements involving parental citizenship, custody and permanent residence.
Some of Omar’s critics have disputed her reported October 1982 birth date and alleged that she was already 18 when she acquired citizenship, but those claims have not been publicly proven.
The Post cited archived versions of a Minnesota legislative biography that reportedly listed Omar’s birth year as 1981 before it was changed to 1982.
Omar has said original records from Somalia were destroyed during the country’s civil war, and congressional records currently identify her birth date as October 4, 1982.
The sources also raised questions about whether Omar’s father accurately described his background when completing immigration and citizenship paperwork after bringing the family to the United States.
Nur Said, who died in 2020, was publicly described as an educator, while Somali reports and a former Somali prime minister identified him as a former Somali National Army colonel.
His previous military service would not independently prove immigration fraud, and the government would need evidence that a material fact was knowingly concealed or misrepresented during the immigration process.
One former official told the Post that investigators could also seek DNA testing from Omar and Elmi, although neither would be legally obligated to provide a sample voluntarily.
Such testing could potentially address whether the two were biologically related, but it would not by itself establish the purpose of their marriage or prove that either person committed immigration fraud.
Elmi and Omar did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment, while Omar’s representatives have previously characterized the accusations surrounding her marriage and citizenship as false, offensive and politically motivated, The New York Post reported.
Any attempt to revoke Omar’s citizenship would require a formal denaturalization case supported by admissible evidence, not merely anonymous claims, unresolved suspicions or statements from administration officials.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
