Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said federal authorities are investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar's immigration history and revived the long-disputed allegation that the Minnesota Democrat married a brother to help him enter the United States. DHS subsequently confirmed that an investigation is ongoing but declined to disclose what evidence investigators have obtained or what potential violations are under examination.
Speaking with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Mullin stated: "We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States." He referred to Omar's former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and said investigators were also examining whether there "may be more to this" involving the family's immigration history.
Omar has repeatedly denied that Elmi is her brother or that their 2009 marriage was arranged to evade immigration law. The allegation has circulated since at least 2016, but investigations by news organizations haven't produced conclusive public evidence establishing that the two were siblings. PolitiFact, reviewing reporting by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and other outlets, said the available record didn't allow the claim to be confirmed.
Mullin emphasized that any government action would depend on evidence rather than political affiliation. "If we actually move a case forward, it's not a political case. It's an actual case because they did things wrong," he said, according to accounts of the Dallas interview.
He also raised the possibility that immigration consequences could follow if investigators conclude that Omar or relatives supplied false information during earlier immigration proceedings. "If we can prove it then, that you shouldn't have been here in the first place, we'll deport you," Mullin said.
A DHS spokesman later told JNS that the department doesn't discuss "specific investigative techniques, ongoing investigations or potential future actions." The spokesman added: "No one, including members of Congress, are above the law." The department didn't publicly identify the legal theory being investigated or say whether Omar herself is a formal investigative target.
Omar became a naturalized U.S. citizen as a teenager, years before her marriage to Elmi. She has said she arrived in the U.S. as a refugee at age 12 and became a citizen at 17. That timeline is legally significant because the disputed marriage occurred in 2009, roughly nine years after her naturalization.
Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly enter a marriage for the purpose of evading U.S. immigration laws. The offense carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.
The ordinary federal limitations period for noncapital criminal offenses is five years unless another statute provides otherwise. That could complicate any criminal prosecution based solely on an alleged marriage-fraud offense dating to 2009, though other immigration or false-statement theories could involve different legal questions depending on the underlying facts.
Civil denaturalization is a separate process. Under federal law, the government may seek to revoke citizenship if naturalization was "illegally procured" or obtained through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation. Because Omar became a citizen before her marriage to Elmi, the existence of the later marriage by itself wouldn't establish that her naturalization had been fraudulently obtained.
Omar legally married Elmi, a British citizen, in 2009. She has said the relationship ended in 2011, though their legal divorce wasn't finalized until 2017; she legally married Ahmed Hirsi the following year after the two had earlier been joined in a religious marriage.
When the allegation emerged during her 2016 campaign for the Minnesota Legislature, Omar rejected it directly. "Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive," she told the Star Tribune.
The Star Tribune later reviewed marriage and divorce filings, business records, university information and social-media material. Its 2019 investigation said it "could neither conclusively confirm nor rebut the allegation" that Elmi was Omar's sibling, while also reporting that Omar declined to provide tax or immigration records or make relatives available for interviews.
Separate questions about Omar's financial and tax filings have surfaced over the years. Minnesota campaign-finance investigators found that she had filed joint federal tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Hirsi while she remained legally married to Elmi, a discrepancy she later corrected. That finding didn't establish that Elmi was her brother or that the 2009 marriage constituted immigration fraud.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have also repeated allegations of immigration wrongdoing involving Omar, bringing the issue back into national political debate. The claim has nevertheless remained disputed, and no publicly identified criminal charge, indictment or court ruling has established that Omar married a sibling or committed marriage fraud.
Mullin said the current inquiry extends beyond the marriage allegation and could encompass how members of Omar's family originally entered the United States. DHS hasn't released investigative records substantiating that assertion, leaving the nature, scope and evidentiary basis of the inquiry undisclosed as the department continues its review.
