Ilhan Omar’s U.S. Citizenship In Doubt Amid Scrutiny

Federal authorities are examining Rep. Ilhan Omar’s immigration history with the aim of building a case to revoke her U.S. citizenship, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the probe.

The multipronged inquiry focuses on how Omar obtained citizenship after arriving from Somalia in 1995, when her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, brought family members from a refugee camp in Kenya.

Investigators are reviewing whether her birth date was misstated on paperwork so she would qualify for derivative citizenship as a minor when her father naturalized in 2000.

Under the rules then in effect, an unmarried permanent resident under 18 could derive citizenship through a parent’s naturalization if conditions were met.

Omar has stated that she became a citizen before turning 18 through that process.

On Monday, Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a search warrant at her Washington, D.C.-area residence and seized electronic devices, notebooks, and her passport.

Authorities have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to relatives, as a Minnesota grand jury reviews the family’s immigration records.

Possible outcomes include charges for false statements or civil denaturalization proceedings.

Criminal denaturalization carries a ten-year statute of limitations, while civil denaturalization does not.

The Justice Department under the current administration has prioritized denaturalization cases involving alleged material misrepresentations on citizenship applications.

A New York Post report, citing emails and library records, stated that in May 2019 Omar’s congressional staff contacted the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library to request a change in her listed birth year from 1981 to 1982.

The library director wrote in an email, “On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar’s congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982.”

The same communication noted efforts to update the year on Wikipedia and in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Official congressional materials now list her birth date as October 4, 1982.

A 1981 birth year would have placed her at age 18 or older in 2000, potentially affecting eligibility for automatic derivative citizenship.

Denaturalization requires the Justice Department to file in federal court and prove willful misrepresentation of a material fact.

Omar has denied wrongdoing and described the probe as political targeting by the administration.