Rep. Ilhan Omar has been a lightning rod of controversy since being elected to Congress, but her biggest issue appears to be a nagging legal problem that could lead to dire consequences for her and her family.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday that the Minnesota Democrat and Somali native is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation into long-running allegations that she entered into a fraudulent marriage with her brother to help him obtain immigration benefits.
Speaking with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Mullin went further than previous administration officials by asserting that Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom critics have alleged is her brother.
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“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States,” Mullin said, adding that the brother, Elmi, now lives in London.
“There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with,” he told Johnson.
“Something’s going to happen,” Mullin said. “This is an ongoing investigation.”
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Mullin also suggested that Omar could eventually face deportation if investigators establish immigration fraud and the government succeeds in stripping her of U.S. citizenship.
But such an outcome would require significant additional legal steps.
Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen. She came to the United States with her family as a refugee after fleeing Somalia’s civil war and became an American citizen in 2000 — nine years before her marriage to Elmi.
A naturalized citizen cannot simply be deported based on an allegation of wrongdoing.
Federal law permits the government to seek denaturalization when citizenship was illegally obtained or procured through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.
Only after citizenship were revoked could ordinary removal proceedings potentially become relevant.
That distinction is particularly important in Omar’s case because she became a citizen before the marriage at the center of the controversy.
The allegation surrounding Omar and Elmi dates back to her 2016 campaign for the Minnesota Legislature.
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Omar legally married Elmi, a British citizen, in Minnesota in 2009. Critics subsequently claimed Elmi was actually her brother and that the marriage was arranged to help him obtain immigration status.
Omar has repeatedly denied that allegation, calling it “absurd and offensive” and “absolutely false and ridiculous.”
The allegation has never been established in court.
Contemporary reporting by the Minnesota Star Tribune found no definitive evidence proving that Elmi was Omar’s brother. Omar showed the newspaper documents from her family’s refugee resettlement records that appeared to list her siblings; the newspaper reported that no one named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi appeared among them.
Questions about Omar’s marital history nevertheless persisted because of several documented irregularities.
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Omar has said she entered into a religious marriage with Ahmed Hirsi in 2002. The couple had two children before separating in 2008.
She legally married Elmi in 2009 and has said their relationship ended in their faith tradition in 2011. Their legal divorce, however, was not finalized until 2017.
Omar reconciled with Hirsi after separating from Elmi and later had a third child with him. She and Hirsi legally married in 2018.
A Minnesota campaign-finance investigation later revealed another complication.
Omar and Hirsi filed joint federal tax returns in 2014 and 2015 even though Omar was still legally married to Elmi at the time.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board required Omar to reimburse campaign money that had been used to pay lawyers who helped correct those tax filings.
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The board did not find evidence proving the separate allegation that Omar married Elmi for immigration purposes.
Federal officials revived scrutiny of the marriage allegations after President Trump returned to office.
In December 2025, border czar Tom Homan said investigators were gathering records related to Omar’s immigration history. Homan also acknowledged that the age of the alleged conduct could create statute-of-limitations problems for any criminal prosecution.
Vice President JD Vance escalated the administration’s rhetoric in March.
Vance told Johnson that he believed Omar had “definitely committed immigration fraud” and said he had discussed possible legal remedies with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
Vance said officials were examining how to investigate the allegations and determine whether a viable case could be built.
In May, Vance said the Justice Department was examining the issue.