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Vice President JD Vance didn’t mince words Friday when asked about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s long history of questionable immigration practices. “We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance told conservative commentator Benny Johnson in an interview, adding that the administration is actively exploring legal remedies to hold her accountable. The allegations against Omar aren’t new, as they’ve been raised by conservative groups for years, but they’ve never been taken seriously by the political establishment.
The Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman stands accused of marrying her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him obtain a green card, according to reports from conservative media outlets. At the time, Elmi was a British citizen who needed American residency status. Omar and Elmi reportedly separated just two years later and didn’t officially divorce until 2017 — right around the time Omar launched her political career.
The timeline reads like a fraudster’s instruction manual. Omar arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000 at age 17, as documented in public records. She entered a religious marriage with Ahmed Hirsi in 2002, had three children with him, then claimed they separated in 2008; one year later, she married Elmi. Months after separating from Elmi in 2011, she reconciled with Hirsi, a pattern that conservatives have pointed to as evidence of a scheme to game America’s immigration system.
Omar has called the allegations “absurd and offensive,” which is exactly what you’d expect someone to say when caught red-handed. What’s truly absurd is that these questions have lingered for over a decade without serious investigation by federal authorities, as noted in reports from federal prosecutors. Vance made clear that the administration isn’t just interested in the marriage fraud; he’s also worried about what Ilhan Omar knew about what was happening in the Somali community and why nobody was looking into it until Donald Trump came along, according to his comments to Benny Johnson.
The scale of corruption uncovered by federal prosecutors in Minnesota is staggering, with dozens of convictions and billions in stolen funds from various schemes involving the state’s large Somali community. And somehow, the congresswoman representing the district at the epicenter of this criminal enterprise claims she knew nothing. Vance indicated he’s been discussing the Omar case directly with Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior adviser and the architect of the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy, as he mentioned in the interview.
The legal framework for dealing with immigration fraud is clear and severe, with people convicted of fraudulently obtaining naturalization facing denaturalization and deportation, per U.S. immigration law. If the allegations are true — if Omar really did marry her brother to help him get a green card — she wouldn’t just lose her congressional seat. Trump has already called for Omar to be “thrown out of the country,” as he stated during the campaign, and with Vance confirming active investigations, those words look more like a promise.
Conservatives have watched Omar thumb her nose at American law and norms for years; she’s made anti-Semitic comments that would have ended any Republican’s career, dismissed 9/11 as “some people did something,” and advocated for policies that would dismantle America’s immigration enforcement apparatus. Through it all, she’s enjoyed the protection of a media establishment that treats her as a victim. That protection may finally be crumbling, with Vance’s statement signaling a new phase in the Trump administration’s approach to political corruption.
Providence watches over the bold.
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