White House border czar Tom Homan said federal authorities can denaturalize and potentially deport Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) if investigators prove she obtained citizenship through fraud or misrepresentation. Homan made the remarks while discussing what he called an “ongoing criminal investigation” involving the Minnesota Democrat. He declined to reveal exactly what evidence investigators have gathered so far and emphasized that denaturalization requires a serious legal process.
The exchange occurred during Homan’s appearance on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing,” where he was questioned about a Department of Homeland Security investigation into Omar’s immigration history. The host specifically asked how Omar’s status as a naturalized American citizen would affect any effort to remove her from the country. The questions followed recent remarks from Mullin concerning longstanding allegations about Omar’s second marriage.
“She is though a naturalized U.S. citizen. How does that complicate things for investigators?” the host asked. “What would need to happen for her to be kicked out of the country if some fraud is proven?” She asked Homan directly whether authorities were developing a denaturalization case against the congresswoman. Homan explained that federal authorities have previously pursued such cases when citizenship was allegedly obtained through deception.
“Look, you know, I’ve been around 40 years, and we’ve done denat’s cases,” he said. As Fox News reported, Homan had earlier confirmed that ICE was examining allegations involving Omar but wouldn’t discuss the details of an active investigation.
“We have denaturalized citizens based on fraud, based on lying on their applications or lying through the process, misrepresenting themselves, or maybe misrepresenting organizations they belong to or beliefs they have,” Homan continued. He cautioned that stripping citizenship is “a very serious process” rather than an immediate administrative action. “If someone lies through that process to becoming a citizen, and we can prove they in fact lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them,” he said. Homan added that federal officials had used the process “many times” during his four decades in immigration enforcement.
Watch Homan explain the denaturalization process here:
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His comments came after Mullin alleged during a podcast appearance that Omar married her brother to bring him into the United States. Omar has repeatedly denied that allegation, but the statement from the Homeland Security Secretary marks one of the most direct assertions that they do in fact have evidence that it happened.
Mullin said during the earlier podcast appearance, “Something’s going to happen,” before claiming, “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States. We know he now lives in London.” He also raised questions about whether there could have been other immigration violations involving Omar’s family. “If we can prove it, that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we will deport you,” Mullin said.
The Fox host then asked Homan how he would answer Democrats who accuse the administration of conducting a politically motivated investigation. “There’s nothing political about it,” Homan responded. “ICE is enforcing law that Congress wrote.” He said the Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted by Congress and that ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and DHS were responsible for enforcing it.
“None of us are making this up,” Homan said. “Our job is to enforce the laws enacted by Congress, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, citizenship may be revoked when naturalization was illegally obtained or secured through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation, according to the Justice Department’s description of the process.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.