White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed a DHS criminal probe of Rep. Ilhan Omar, while a former federal prosecutor warned the legal bar for marriage-fraud charges and denaturalization remains extremely high.
Tom Homan said the Department of Homeland Security is running a “criminal” investigation involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat long accused by critics of immigration fraud. The confirmation put fresh weight behind years of claims that Omar married a relative to secure immigration benefits, claims she has repeatedly denied.
Fox News Digital pressed immigration attorney Michael Wildes on what prosecutors would actually need to prove. Wildes, framed in the coverage as a former federal prosecutor, said the government faces a “very high bar” before it can turn allegations into a sustainable case, let alone move toward stripping citizenship.
Homan, the White House border czar, confirmed the DHS probe on Sunday and called denaturalization a “very serious process.” He would not say whether federal investigators already hold evidence of marriage or immigration fraud. He also declined to detail what, specifically, DHS is examining.
Vice President JD Vance had claimed earlier this year that the Department of Justice is investigating Omar for alleged fraud and immigration violations. The Trump administration has also stepped up broader efforts to denaturalize and deport people accused of immigration fraud.
Omar told Fox News Digital just last week that she has not been contacted by DHS and is not aware of any ongoing investigation into her marriage or immigration status. Neither Omar nor DHS answered the outlet’s requests for additional comment.
Critics allege Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 and that the marriage was a vehicle to gain immigration benefits. Omar has denied she married her brother to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Separate from the marriage dispute is the timeline of her own naturalization. Reporting cited congressional records stating Omar became a citizen at age 17 in 2000. Omar has said she received automatic citizenship as a minor when her father was naturalized.
Former Minnesota congressional candidate AJ Kern has also accused Omar’s camp of a birth-year revision on a Minnesota Legislative Reference Library website, another allegation circulating around her biographical record. Primary application files and marriage records were not reproduced in the available reporting.
Wildes broke down the core marriage-fraud standard in plain terms. He said the government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly entered a marriage whose primary purpose was to evade immigration laws and obtain a benefit.
"In order to establish a successful marriage fraud case, the government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt... that the defendant knowingly entered into a marriage with the primary purpose to evade immigration laws and get a benefit,"
Wildes told Fox News Digital.
He added that those are “very high bars and thresholds,” and that an immigration benefit cannot be treated as a byproduct or secondary consideration. “This is not deemed to be illegal,” he said of a marriage in which immigration status is not the driving purpose.
If proved, marriage fraud can carry up to five years in jail, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both. Wildes also flagged a practical obstacle: statutes of limitations could hinder a prosecution tied to a 2009 marriage.
Stripping citizenship is not automatic even if investigators pursue document or marriage issues. Wildes described denaturalization as a pathway tied to allegations that someone falsified information when obtaining citizenship, with the government making case-by-case decisions.
"We're talking about taking away a benefit and then banishing them from the United States."
he said.
On document-fraud theories, Wildes said investigators would also need to examine whether Omar had counsel and whether any application problems were simple mistakes or inadvertences later cast as fraud.
"If the government were to prosecute for document fraud, we would also want to know whether or not she was represented by counsel, and if there were simple mistakes on her application or inadvertences that may be deemed to be fraudulent,"
Wildes said.
He framed the larger test this way: whether the claims are truthful, hypothesized, or backed by hard fact “will play heavily in that prosecution.” He also asked whether any errors were purposeful and whether denaturalization would be “over the top.”
Omar cast the controversy as familiar political combat. She said she is not worried because “the right wing always had this s*** going.”
Wildes was unmoved by her claim that she has not been notified. “The congresswoman's not being aware doesn't change anything,” he said. He noted the government has no duty to tip its hand early, especially in a case loaded with political heat, and will want a solid prosecution before exposing its evidence.
Still, Wildes offered a blunt bottom line on the public record he has reviewed.
"I haven't seen anything that I think is worthy of a prosecution,"
he said, adding that Omar is a member of Congress and that prosecutors must proceed properly “and not frivolously,” regardless of anyone’s politics.
President Donald Trump has feuded with Omar for years and has repeatedly called for her to be returned to Somalia over alleged fraudulent activity. Homan’s confirmation now places a live DHS criminal investigation on the table, even as the evidence file remains undisclosed and the legal thresholds Wildes described remain steep.
Accountability on immigration fraud should run on evidence and law, not vibes, and if federal investigators truly have the goods, they should put them on the record instead of leaving the country with confirmation theater.
