Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has publicly declared that Representative Ilhan Omar “married her brother” and warned the naturalized congresswoman could face deportation if federal investigators prove immigration fraud.
Mullin, 47, made the explosive allegations Thursday during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas, framing them around what he described as an active federal probe into the Minnesota Democrat. “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States,” Mullin said confidently during the exchange. “We know he lives now in London,” the DHS chief added, referring to Omar’s ex-husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a UK citizen.
The cabinet secretary pushed further on potential consequences, suggesting investigators may uncover broader irregularities. “There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with,” he told Johnson. Mullin insisted any prosecution would be grounded in evidence rather than politics: “Here’s what I want to make sure we do: if we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case, it’s an actual case, because they did things wrong.”
On the specific mechanism for removal, Mullin was unambiguous. “If you lied about certain things about your application. There’s no expiration to that. If we can prove it – that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place – we’ll deport you.”
Omar, who became a naturalized US citizen in 2000 at age 17, has forcefully rejected the brother-marriage narrative for years. “Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” she told MPR News in 2016. Her office has continued batting back the claim as recently as this year. “This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers,” Omar’s chief of staff Connor McNutt said of the marriage fraud allegations earlier this year.
The congresswoman’s marital history involves two men named Ahmed. She legally wed Elmi in February 2009, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune and a Hennepin County marriage certificate, then dissolved that marriage in December 2017. The following month, January 2018, she legally married Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, with whom she had previously had a religious ceremony. Omar has characterized her relationship with Elmi as brief, claiming the two were separated for most of the union except between 2009 and 2011, and no records show them having children together.
The allegations that Omar and Elmi were siblings originated on SomaliSpot, a Somali politics discussion board, though those posts were later deleted, according to City Journal. They gained more concrete form in 2020 when Minneapolis-based Somali blogger and community leader Abdihakim Osman said he had known Omar growing up in Minnesota. Osman claimed she introduced Elmi to Somali community members in the late 2000s as her brother from London, allegedly telling people her sibling was seeking “papers” — immigration documents such as a green card. “No one knew there had been a wedding [to Elmi] until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,” Osman said in that interview.
A 2019 Star Tribune report added another layer, noting an Instagram photo that seemingly showed Elmi holding a newborn girl he called his niece in June 2012 — the same month and year Omar’s youngest daughter was born.
The brother-marriage claim has circulated in conservative circles for at least a decade and received high-level presidential reinforcement. Vice President JD Vance told Benny Johnson in March, “We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America.” President Trump told a crowd in May that he believes Omar “married her brother, which is totally illegal.”
Marriage fraud carries federal penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Mullin emphasized Thursday that investigators have not reached final conclusions. “Here’s what I want to make sure we do: if we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case, it’s an actual case, because they did things wrong,” he repeated, adding the caution that the probe remains ongoing.