Allegations that Somalia-born US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar committed marriage and immigration fraud — accusations that first surfaced in 2016 — have resurfaced once again, prompting calls from some conservative groups and Trump-aligned accounts for her denaturalisation and deportation. The controversy centres on her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom critics allege is her brother — a claim Omar has repeatedly denied as defamatory and Islamophobic.
The renewed uproar comes just days after President Donald Trump publicly referenced Omar’s immigration history, repeating the conspiracy theory that she “married her brother to get into America” while escalating his hard-line rhetoric following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House. Viral posts on social media have pressed the Department of Homeland Security to act, circulating old records and demanding Omar be stripped of citizenship.
Omar has long been a polarising figure in US politics — not only within domestic debates but also in foreign policy. In 2022, she visited Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and met local leaders, accusing India of human-rights violations. New Delhi condemned the visit sharply, noting her repeated criticism of the Indian government in global forums.
Despite the volume of online allegations, no investigative body has substantiated fraud. Multiple inquiries — including reporting by the Minnesota Star Tribune and Alpha News, as well as reviews by the FBI and the House Ethics Committee — acknowledged irregularities in her marital history but found no definitive proof that Elmi is her sibling or that her citizenship was obtained fraudulently. None resulted in charges.
The viral question now being asked — whether Ilhan Omar can be deported — centres on the legal threshold for stripping a naturalised citizen of their status. US law allows denaturalisation only when the Department of Justice proves in federal court, with clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence, that citizenship was obtained by deliberate misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact. If citizenship is revoked, the individual reverts to permanent-resident or undocumented status and may then face removal proceedings.
Marriage fraud has served as grounds for denaturalisation in past cases, but those typically involved contemporaneous evidence, confessions, or forensic documentation — far stronger than unverified allegations that have circulated online for nearly a decade.
While MAGA activists are now openly demanding Omar’s expulsion from the country, the legal path for that outcome is long, procedurally complex, and requires proof that has not surfaced in any previous investigation. Until federal prosecutors bring — and win — a denaturalisation case in court, Ilhan Omar remains a US citizen and an elected Democratic representative, and neither deportation nor removal from office is legally possible.
