Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said federal investigators are examining longstanding allegations surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) immigration history and suggested Thursday that additional developments could follow.
Mullin made the remarks during an appearance with conservative commentator Benny Johnson at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas. The former Oklahoma senator was confirmed as Homeland Security secretary in March.
Johnson asked Mullin about allegations that Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom critics have claimed is her biological brother, as part of an immigration scheme.
“Something’s going to happen,” Mullin responded.
Mullin then made a more definitive allegation about the marriage.
“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States,” the DHS secretary said.
The allegation has circulated for years but has never been publicly proven. Omar has repeatedly denied that Elmi is her brother and has rejected claims that the marriage involved immigration fraud.
Previous examinations of the allegation have found gaps and inconsistencies in the available public record but have not established that Elmi was Omar’s sibling. A Minneapolis Star Tribune investigation reviewed by PolitiFact said it could neither conclusively confirm nor rebut the allegation.
Omar has previously called the accusations “absolutely false and ridiculous” and said suggestions that Elmi was her brother were “absurd and offensive.”
Mullin said investigators are looking beyond the marriage claim and examining the broader circumstances surrounding the immigration history of Omar’s 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. “But all of this, we’re investigating.”
The secretary emphasized that any potential federal action would depend on evidence uncovered by investigators.
“If we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case,” Mullin said. “It’s actually a case because they did things wrong.”
Mullin also addressed what could happen if investigators concluded that false information had been supplied during an immigration process.
“If you decided to break the law or lie on the information you gave the United States … but you didn’t tell us who you actually were … there’s no expiration to that,” he said.
“If we can prove it that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we’ll deport you,” Mullin added.
His remarks did not amount to an announcement of charges, and no criminal charges connected to the marriage allegation had been publicly announced as of Thursday.
The renewed scrutiny comes after other Trump administration officials publicly discussed Omar’s immigration history earlier this year.
Vice President JD Vance said in May that the Justice Department was examining whether there was evidence of immigration fraud involving the Minnesota congresswoman.
“It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws, so we’re going to investigate it,” Vance said at the time, according to the source.
Vance added that authorities would pursue charges only if investigators determined that a crime had occurred.
President Donald Trump has also repeatedly raised the brother-marriage allegation publicly, while Omar has continued to deny it. The claim dates back to her early political career and has been repeatedly investigated by news organizations, without definitive proof emerging that Elmi was her biological brother, per Trending Politics.
Omar is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Somalia and arrived in the US as a refugee before becoming a citizen as a teenager.
The Republican Midterm Convention, where Mullin made his latest remarks, brought Trump administration officials and Republican candidates to Dallas as the party prepares for November’s congressional elections.
For now, Mullin’s comments indicate that federal authorities continue to examine the allegations, but they do not establish that Omar committed immigration fraud or any other crime.
