Whether driven by political persecution or the pursuit of justice for the commission of fraud, the prospect of denaturalization raises questions
Last week, federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, raided the DC home of Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and subpoenaed several of her relatives. Federal officials may also have seized Omar’s cell phone.
Statements by members of the Trump administration have made it clear that the raid and investigation are at least in part due to allegations of immigration fraud. If substantiated, the allegations raise the possibility that the administration could revoke her citizenship, a process known as denaturalization.
The Democratic lawmaker, a far-left member of the “Squad,” is widely recognized, especially by the Jewish community, as an extreme opponent of Israel in Congress. Trump has long had her in his sights, referring to her as a danger to America and calling for her to be deported to her native country of Somalia.
This new raid has been denounced by Democrats as a weaponization of federal authority to target the president’s political opponents. Trump, who has accused former Presidents Obama and Biden of using government agencies to harass him, claims that his administration is simply pursuing justice. The fact that Omar is running for reelection and that the raid occurred just weeks before Election Day only adds to the speculation.
Fraudulent route to the United States?
The exact focus of the raid has not been disclosed, but a wide swath of media reported that Omar’s immigration status was a primary point of scrutiny.
Omar became a naturalized American citizen in 2000 as a dependent of her father, Nur Omar Mohamed. She derived her citizenship through his application because he declared that she was a minor, allowing her to qualify automatically. Allegations have been made, however, that she was actually 18, not 17, at the time of his application. If that allegation is true, it would render her derivative citizenship fraudulent, theoretically providing the administration with grounds to pursue denaturalization.
Her father’s own naturalization has also been disputed. Although he claimed to have been an educator in Somalia—a claim repeated in Rep. Omar’s memoir—others allege that he was actually a member of the Somali military, with some saying he may have even been involved in war crimes. Nur Omar Mohamed came to the US as a refugee from the violence in Somalia, but such accusations would make him a contributor to the country’s fractious history rather than a victim of it.
Rep. Omar has also been accused of an entirely different kind of fraud: marrying her own brother in order to secure his immigration status in the US. Although that allegation has circulated for a long time in conservative media and been repeated by Trump and members of his Cabinet, no conclusive evidence has confirmed that Ahmed Elmi, who divorced Omar in 2017, was her brother.
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