Conservative activist Laura Loomer is publicly pressuring Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to move against Rep. Ilhan Omar after Mullin said federal authorities are examining allegations involving the Minnesota Democrat’s immigration history.
Loomer responded to Mullin’s comments by telling him to “just do it already” rather than continue discussing possible action against Omar.
Mullin said during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas last week that there is an “ongoing investigation” involving allegations about Omar’s family and immigration history.
He also repeated the long-running allegation that Omar married her brother to help him immigrate to the United States.
That allegation has never been established as fact and has been repeatedly denied by Omar, who has called it false and offensive.
A 2019 Minnesota Star Tribune investigation found unresolved questions surrounding Omar’s marital history but said available public records could neither conclusively confirm nor disprove the claim that her former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was her brother.
Mullin said investigators are also examining whether there was other potentially illegal conduct connected to the family’s immigration to the United States.
“Something’s going to happen, and this is an ongoing investigation,” Mullin said.
He insisted that any eventual enforcement action would be based on evidence rather than politics.
“If we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case, it’s actually a case because they did things wrong,” Mullin said.
Mullin added that if investigators could prove someone lied on immigration paperwork or otherwise obtained entry unlawfully, the government could pursue removal proceedings.
Omar is a sitting Democratic member of Congress representing Minnesota’s 5th District.
She was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a refugee after spending years in a Kenyan refugee camp.
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Questions surrounding her marital history date back to her 2016 campaign for the Minnesota Legislature.
Public records show Omar legally married Elmi in 2009 and later divorced him in 2017.
Omar later acknowledged that she and Ahmed Hirsi filed joint federal tax returns in 2014 and 2015 while she was still legally married to Elmi, a discrepancy she subsequently corrected.
The Minnesota campaign finance board previously examined legal expenses connected to inquiries into her marital history but did not establish that she had married a sibling as part of an immigration scheme.
Mullin’s latest comments nevertheless revived the controversy and prompted Loomer to demand immediate action.
“They always say it but never do it,” Loomer wrote.
“If you’re going to do it, just do it,” she added.
Loomer also accused federal officials of failing to hold Omar accountable, while making broader comments about Muslims and Arabs that drew criticism in the Mediaite report.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Omar and has publicly said she should leave the United States.
Mullin, however, emphasized that his department would have to establish a legal basis before taking any action.
He said his responsibility as Homeland Security secretary is to enforce existing law rather than selectively decide which statutes should apply.
No publicly announced charge or deportation proceeding against Omar was identified in the available reporting.
Omar has continued to reject the allegations surrounding her former marriage and previously argued that if evidence supported the accusations, authorities would have resolved the matter years ago.
The dispute now centers on whether the investigation Mullin described produces evidence sufficient for formal action or remains another chapter in a controversy that has followed Omar for nearly a decade.