The federal government spent years looking the other way while Ilhan Omar dismissed every question about her past as a racist smear.
Now the border czar is using a different word for it.
That word is one Omar has never had to face before – and Homan said it on national television.
What Homan Confirmed About the Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case
Border czar Tom Homan went on Fox News and said out loud what the Trump administration had been signaling for months about Rep. Ilhan Omar.
"I know things are going on, but I can't give specifics of what's happening," Homan said.
He confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations – the criminal enforcement arm of DHS – is actively pursuing the case.
"If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law," Homan said.
When asked directly whether he was confirming an active investigation into Omar, Homan said: "I'm confirming that ICE is, yeah."
There is no softer way to read that. A sitting member of Congress is the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
https://twitter.com/SundayBriefFNC/status/2099185958444744882
Ilhan Omar Brother Marriage Fraud and What Investigators Found
The long-standing allegation against Omar is that she legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi – a British citizen critics have long identified as her biological brother – in 2009, with the goal of securing his entry into the United States.
Omar divorced Elmi in 2017. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last week that investigators believe the marriage was exactly what critics claimed.
"We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States," Mullin said. "We know he now lives in London."
Mullin went further than any cabinet official had before – signaling the probe extends well beyond the marriage itself. Investigators are examining the broader immigration history of Omar's entire family.
"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," Mullin said.
This is no longer just about one marriage.
How Denaturalization Could Lead to Ilhan Omar Being Deported
Homan made clear that if fraud is proven, the consequences are severe and entirely legal.
"If someone lies through that process to becoming a citizen, and we can prove they in fact lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them," Homan said. "We've done it before, many times over the last 40 years I've been around."
This is not a threat invented for Omar. Denaturalization has a century of legal precedent. The Naturalization Act of 1906 first codified it. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 sharpened the standard, establishing that citizenship obtained by concealing a material fact or through willful misrepresentation can be revoked.
Between 2017 and 2025, the DOJ filed more than 130 denaturalization cases. The Trump administration expanded that effort through a June 2025 DOJ memo.
Federal courts in North Texas and Minnesota have already stripped citizenship from five Somali nationals on fraud-related grounds.
Mullin was equally blunt on the question of timing: "If you decided to break the law or lie on the information you gave the United States … there's no expiration to that."
The Case Against Ilhan Omar Has Been Building Since December
Omar has called these accusations "bigoted lies" for years. In December she posted on social media that Trump was "obsessed" with her.
Vice President JD Vance said in March that he had personally discussed potential legal action against Omar with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller.
"We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America," Vance said at the time.
By May, Vance confirmed the Justice Department was formally examining the matter.
That groundwork began taking shape last December, when Homan said DHS had started pulling Omar's records as part of a sweeping review of alleged visa fraud tied to Minnesota's Somali community – a community now at the center of federal fraud cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen taxpayer funds.
Homan said the denaturalization process is "very serious." He wasn't offering a political opinion. He was describing what comes next if investigators prove what two cabinet officials now say they already know.
Omar has not been charged. She has denied every allegation since the day they surfaced.
But the border czar just confirmed a criminal investigation on national television – and the word he used was not "review" or "inquiry."
It was criminal.
Sources:
- Max Bacall, "Homan confirms 'criminal' investigation involving Ilhan Omar, says he knows 'things are going on,'" Fox News, September 13, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "DHS Sec. Mullin Confirms Ilhan Omar Married Her Brother As Immigration Fraud Investigation Continues," Townhall, September 11, 2026.
- "Denaturalization: A Brief Overview of the Current Legal Framework," Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov, June 2, 2026.
- "JD Vance says DOJ looking into if Ilhan Omar committed immigration fraud amid brother-marriage allegations," Fox News, May 2026.