Border czar Tom Homan confirmed a criminal DHS investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, as a former prosecutor warned that proving marriage fraud to revoke her citizenship faces a very high bar.
White House border czar Tom Homan has confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security is running a criminal investigation involving Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, long accused by critics of marriage and immigration fraud she has repeatedly denied.
The probe sits inside a broader Trump administration push to hold people accountable for alleged immigration fraud, including possible denaturalization when the facts support it. Omar told Fox News Digital she has not been contacted by DHS and is not aware of any ongoing investigation into her marriage or immigration status.
Immigration attorney Michael Wildes, framed in the reporting as a former federal prosecutor, walked through what the government would actually have to prove. The legal standard is not a political slogan. It is a criminal burden.
Homan’s confirmation put official weight behind allegations that have trailed Omar for years. He described denaturalization as a “very serious process” and declined to say whether agents already hold evidence of marriage or immigration fraud, or what exact conduct DHS is examining.
In separate remarks captured by the New York Post, Homan tied the case to a simple rule: if someone committed an immigration violation or marriage fraud, “regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law.” He also said ICE is looking at the matter and that he had flagged months earlier that reported claims “need to be looked at.”
Vice President JD Vance earlier this year claimed the Justice Department is investigating Omar for alleged fraud and immigration violations. Neither Omar nor DHS answered Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the latest confirmation.
Just the News reported Homan saying agents are “pulling the records” and “pulling the files,” and that President Trump has instructed a deep dive to “hold people accountable.” That outlet also placed the Omar file alongside a wider DHS review of visa fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, where officials have claimed high fraud rates.
The core public allegation is that Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 as part of a scheme to secure an immigration benefit, and that Elmi was her brother. Omar has repeatedly denied marrying her brother to gain citizenship. Public reporting cited in the coverage notes the couple later divorced in 2017 and that no DNA evidence supporting the sibling claim has been produced in the open record.
Wildes told Fox News Digital the criminal bar is exacting.
"In order to establish a successful marriage fraud case, the government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt... that the defendant knowingly entered into a marriage with the primary purpose to evade immigration laws and get a benefit,"
He added that those are “very high bars and thresholds,” and that an immigration benefit “cannot be a byproduct or secondary consideration.” On the separate question of denaturalization, Wildes stressed the difference between sloppy paperwork and deliberate fraud, and the gravity of stripping citizenship and removing someone from the country.
"We're talking about taking away a benefit and then banishing them from the United States."
If marriage fraud were proved, the potential criminal penalties described in the reporting include up to five years in jail, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both. No charges against Omar are described as filed in the available reporting.
Congressional records cited in the coverage state Omar became a U.S. citizen at age 17, with her own citizenship referenced around 2000. She has said she received automatic citizenship as a minor when her father naturalized. Former Minnesota congressional candidate AJ Kern has accused her camp of a revised birth year on a state legislative library website, an allegation that feeds the side fight over whether she was truly a minor at naturalization.
Omar’s posture toward the renewed scrutiny was dismissive. Speaking to Fox News Digital, she said she isn’t worried because “the right wing always had this s*** going.” Wildes noted that her lack of notice does not stop investigators.
"The congresswoman's not being aware doesn't change anything,"
He said the government has no duty to show its hand early, especially in a case loaded with politics, and that prosecutors will want a solid case before they move.
Wildes also offered a caution that cuts against both sloppy activism and selective enforcement:
"I haven't seen anything that I think is worthy of a prosecution,"
And: “This is a member of Congress. It may not be your politics, but we have to also make sure that we engage in prosecutions properly and not frivolously.”
Trump has long clashed with Omar, a Somali-born Squad progressive, and has called for accountability over alleged fraudulent activity, including sending her back to Somalia if the facts warrant it. The administration’s public line is straightforward: immigration fraud cases should be investigated and, when proved, punished, through criminal process, denaturalization, or both.
That is the adult frame. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Vance have separately voiced belief that Omar committed immigration fraud, with denaturalization on the table if proved. Belief is not a verdict. Homan’s confirmation means agents are treating the file as a criminal matter, not a cable-news segment.
Statutes of limitations and proof problems loom over a 2009 marriage. Document-fraud theories around a 2000 naturalization raise separate questions about counsel, mistakes, and intent. Wildes’s point was clinical: inadvertence is not the same as a knowing scheme to evade the law.
Americans who followed the rules, lawful immigrants, taxpayers, and voters who expect equal enforcement, have watched elite institutions shrug at fraud allegations when the politics were inconvenient. A member of Congress does not get a courtesy cloak. She also does not get a show trial. The government either has admissible facts that clear the criminal bar, or it does not.
Equal enforcement means pulling the files, testing the claims, and living with the evidence, without special breaks for progressive celebrities in safe seats.
