Omar defends citizenship, denounces ‘weaponization’ weeks before midterms
Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” told Fox News on Saturday that Rep. Ilhan Omar could be “of course” denaturalized and deported if she or her family misrepresented facts during her naturalization — the most explicit connection a top administration official has publicly drawn between those specific outcomes and the Minnesota congresswoman since federal agents searched her Washington home on Oct. 12.
During the search, agents seized Omar’s phone and the government has since issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to relatives, The Guardian reported.
The investigation, opened weeks before the November midterm elections in which Omar is on the ballot, examines whether Omar or her family violated the law in obtaining her citizenship. It is one of dozens of denaturalization cases the administration has pursued against foreign-born Americans; as of April, the Justice Department had reportedly identified nearly 400 such cases for review. The denaturalization process itself requires a federal investigation and drawn-out court proceedings.
During Saturday’s Fox News appearance, a host asked Homan whether the investigation could involve “denaturalizing and then deporting her.”
“Of course,” Homan answered. “If you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize somebody. We’ve done it before. It’s a long, tedious process, but it’s been done before. And certainly, if the evidence points that way, that could happen.”
Homan also appeared to suggest the government is investigating Omar for additional, unspecified allegations, but declined to give details.
“I’m not going to go there,” Homan said. “I know things, but that’s a question for the FBI.”
Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Somalia, came to the United States in the 1990s after her family fled the country’s civil war and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya, according to her attorneys. She became a naturalized citizen in 2000, her lawyers said. She was a child when her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, filled out the immigration paperwork now under federal scrutiny; he died in June 2020.
In a letter first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Omar’s attorneys said there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.” They also accused the Justice Department of potentially influencing the November elections in violation of longstanding internal policy, and have demanded that federal authorities return Omar’s property and preserve any audio or video taken during the search.
Omar, posting on X after her home was searched, said she was “ok.” She also wrote: “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She said Trump has “targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns” for years and called the search “just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.” “I will not be silenced,” Omar added.
The investigation follows unsubstantiated accusations from right-wing Trump supporters that Omar obtained her citizenship fraudulently. Omar has separately denied allegations that her ex-husband is her brother and that she married him only so he could obtain immigration status in the United States.
The investigation is one of dozens of denaturalization cases the Trump administration is pursuing as part of an immigration enforcement push that has included deploying officials to arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants across the country and, separately, an escalation against legal migration.