Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin publicly declared that Rep. Ilhan Omar married her brother to get him into the United States, and said an ongoing federal investigation could end with the Minnesota Democrat's deportation.
Mullin made the allegation Thursday at a GOP midterm convention in Dallas during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. The DHS chief did not hedge. He told the audience the department has enough confidence in the underlying facts to pursue the case, even though Omar became a naturalized U.S. citizen more than two decades ago.
Just the News reported Mullin's core claim and his warning that immigration fraud carries consequences regardless of how much time has passed. Omar, who gained citizenship in 2000 at age 17, has vehemently denied the allegation. No direct response from her appeared in the reporting.
The DHS secretary went beyond the marriage allegation itself. He explained that lying on an immigration application can result in deportation, and that there is no statute of limitations on that kind of fraud. If investigators can prove an applicant should never have been admitted in the first place, the government retains the authority to remove that person.
As the New York Post reported, marriage fraud under federal law carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, separate from any deportation proceedings. That legal exposure does not shrink with time.
Mullin said the investigation is ongoing and cautioned that the case has not yet reached a conclusion. He also insisted the probe is not politically motivated, a preemptive response to the inevitable accusation from Democrats that the administration is weaponizing federal agencies against a political opponent.
But the political dimension is hard to ignore. Both President Trump and Vice President Vance have publicly stated their belief that Omar married her brother and committed immigration fraud. Those statements, combined with Mullin's remarks in Dallas, suggest the administration views the case as more than a routine inquiry.
Mullin added that Omar's ex-husband now lives in London, a detail he offered without elaboration but one that raises its own questions about the nature of the marriage and the immigration benefit it may have secured.
Mullin's public comments did not arrive in a vacuum. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has withheld FOIA records related to Omar, citing active enforcement proceedings, a move that suggests the investigation has progressed beyond the talking-points stage and into operational territory.
Mullin's direct quote left little room for ambiguity:
"We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States."
That is not the language of suspicion. It is the language of a cabinet official who believes his department has the goods. Whether DHS can prove it in a legal proceeding is a different question, and one the investigation will have to answer.
He also framed the broader principle at work. Mullin told Johnson:
"If you lied about certain things about your application. There's no expiration to that. If we can prove it, that you shouldn't have been here in the first place, we'll deport you."
The statement applies the same standard to a sitting member of Congress that DHS would apply to any naturalized citizen accused of obtaining status through fraud. That is the point Mullin appeared intent on making: no one is above immigration law.
The DHS investigation is not the only front Omar faces. Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, has been preparing a formal House resolution that goes further than censure or ethics complaints. Fine has publicly called not just for Omar's removal from Congress but for her expulsion from the country.
Fine told Breitbart his position plainly: "I don't think Ilhan Omar should be expelled from Congress. I think she should be expelled from the United States." He added: "She'll deal with it on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives."
Fine has also tied his push to broader fraud allegations in Minnesota, where an estimated $9 billion in pandemic-era welfare fraud has drawn federal scrutiny. He linked that fraud to Somali refugee communities and to Omar's political base, an argument that extends the case against Omar beyond immigration fraud into a wider pattern of institutional failure in her home state.
White House border czar Tom Homan has separately confirmed that the Trump administration is examining Omar's immigration history, adding another layer of executive-branch attention to the case.
The congressional ethics process has already taken its own pass at Omar-related misconduct allegations, though DOJ questions remained unresolved even after that review closed. The current DHS investigation operates on a separate track with far more consequential potential outcomes.
The marriage allegation is the most legally serious charge Omar faces, but it sits atop a stack of controversies that have trailed her throughout her time in Congress. Financial irregularities have drawn attention as well, her 2025 financial disclosure showed her husband reported near-zero income, a filing that raised questions about the household's financial arrangements.
Meanwhile, the broader fraud landscape in Minnesota has kept Omar's name in the headlines. Federal investigators arrested an alleged ringleader in a $250 million Minnesota fraud case in Somalia, a case that has intensified scrutiny of the systems and networks Omar's critics say enabled her rise.
Omar has denied the marriage-fraud allegation consistently. But denial is not rebuttal. She has not, based on available reporting, produced documents or testimony that directly refute the claim. The burden of proof in any deportation proceeding would fall on the government, not on Omar, but the political burden of explanation falls squarely on her.
No formal charges have been filed. No deportation proceedings have been initiated. Mullin himself acknowledged the investigation remains open. Those are important caveats.
But the public posture of the administration, from the president and vice president down through the DHS secretary, leaves little doubt about where the executive branch believes this case is heading. When a cabinet secretary tells a convention audience "we know" a sitting congresswoman committed immigration fraud, that is not idle speculation. It is a signal.
The question now is whether the investigation produces evidence strong enough to survive legal challenge, and whether the political will exists to follow through on what Mullin described. Deportation of a sitting member of Congress would be unprecedented. So would proving that a naturalized citizen who has served in the House for years obtained her status through fraud.
Omar has spent years dismissing these allegations as politically motivated attacks. Mullin anticipated that defense and rejected it preemptively. The facts will settle the argument one way or the other, but only if the investigation reaches a conclusion and the results are made public.
If a cabinet secretary is willing to say "we know" on a stage in Dallas, the American people deserve to see the proof. And if the proof holds up, the law should apply to Ilhan Omar the same way it applies to anyone else who lied to get into this country.
