Ilhan Omar may have already compromised national security, Foreign Affairs Committee members say
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 19: U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference on the No Shame at School Act on June 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. The bill, which is sponsored by Omar, will ensure that no child is shamed or goes without eating a school lunch due to a lack of money. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)
Some of “Ilhan Omar’s” congressional colleagues are raising questions about whether she shared information with Somali officials while serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to Washington, D.C. news sources.
Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home last month and took her phone, computers, notebooks, and passport as part of an investigation into her immigration history and how she obtained U.S. citizenship.
Omar arrived in the United States from a Kenyan refugee camp in 1995 and was naturalized in 2000.
Investigators are reviewing that process, including longstanding allegations that she married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him gain immigration benefits. She has denied the claims.
Court filings related to the probe have listed her real name as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.
Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee now argue the investigation creates a separate problem: the possibility that someone whose citizenship status is under review previously handled classified material.
Chairman Brian Mast of Florida has said members of Congress receive classified briefings without the background checks required of military or intelligence personnel, and that “being elected is not the same thing as being vetted.”
Mast has pushed for a requirement that lawmakers obtain formal security clearances. Mast noted that concerns about Omar’s access existed when she was removed from the panel in 2023 after anti-Semitic remarks, and he said the current probe has intensified them.
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Ilhan Omar may have already compromised national security, Foreign Affairs Committee members say
Other House Republicans are waiting on the investigation’s results and have discussed expelling Omar from Congress.
Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne said that if evidence shows Omar is not a citizen, “lawmakers should do everything in our power to remove her from Congress and remove her from our country.”
Article I of the Constitution requires House members to be U.S. citizens for at least seven years.
On the Democratic side of the House, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington issued a letter signed by over 100 House Democrats condemning the investigation. Forty Democrats, mostly from competitive districts, declined to sign.
The full scope of the federal probe remains unclear, but committee members say any finding of fraud would raise immediate questions about the classified materials Omar previously reviewed.
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