President Donald Trump has revived speculation about whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) might be visited by consequence for alleged immigration fraud. On Sunday, the president shared a provocative Aug. 11 report from Just the News with the headline “ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing ‘enforcement proceedings.'”
Quick background
Years after coming to America as a refugee, Omar, a Somali-born ethno-nationalist, reportedly took out a marriage license to marry a man named Ahmed Hirsi. In 2002, she married Hirsi in a Muslim ceremony and had children with him but did not initially marry him legally.
‘You are not allowed to marry your brother.’
After supposedly breaking it off with Hirsi, in 2009, Omar legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi — a British-Somali national reportedly identified by numerous Somalis as Omar’s alleged brother. Omar allegedly separated from Elmi with a Muslim divorce in 2011, reunited and had another child with Hirsi in 2012, then formally divorced Elmi in 2017, reported the Center for Immigration Studies.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board revealed in 2019 that Omar and Hirsi filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 — while Omar was still legally married to Elmi. The Hill noted at the time that filing a joint tax return where no legal marriage exists violates both federal and state law.
Abdihakim Osman, a self-identified friend of Omar, claimed to the Daily Mail in 2020 that Omar had confirmed that Elmi was her brother and that she married him so he could remain in the United States.
RELATED: Tennessee Republican begins impeachment process against judge who BLOCKED TPS removals to Somalia
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Omar called the marriage-related allegations “absolutely false and ridiculous” in a 2016 statement, adding that “insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.” There has been no concrete proof, DNA or otherwise, yet brought forward to verify that Omar’s legal husband from 2009-2017 was her biological brother.
In December, border czar Tom Homan said that the Trump administration was investigating Omar for alleged immigration fraud. Trump stated the following month that the Justice Department was “looking at” the Minnesota Democrat.
When asked in May about a possible forthcoming indictment against Omar for alleged immigration fraud, Vice President JD Vance said both that “it certainly seems like something fishy is there” and that it was something “the Department of Justice is looking at right now.”
How it’s going
According to the Just the News report that Trump referenced on Sunday, Just the News filed a Freedom of Information request in January for any records related to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into allegations of immigration fraud by Omar.
In response to the request, the outlet learned that ICE may have “enforcement proceedings” underway in connection with Omar.
ICE told Just the News in May, “ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
ICE noted that FOIA Exemption 7(A) “applies to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes when their release could disrupt such proceedings.”
According to the DOJ,
Exemption 7(A) requires a two-step analysis. First, there must be a “reasonable likelihood” of a pending or contemplated law enforcement proceeding. Second, release of the information must be reasonably expected to cause some articulable harm to that proceeding.
When asked for comment, ICE referred Blaze News to the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS, the White House, the DOJ, and Omar’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump has made no secret that he dislikes Rep. Ilhan Omar and is skeptical about her legal status in the country.
In November, for instance, he wrote, “The worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation.”
Trump suggested further that Omar “should go back!”
Omar is fighting to keep her seat in Congress and is scheduled to face off with challenger John Nagel, a Republican who served for three decades as a state trooper, in November.
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Ilhan omar, Immigration fraud, Justice department, White house, Minnesota, Us immigration and customs enforcement, Politics
