US homeland security chief claims Ilhan Omar married her brother, warns of deportation

US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleged this week that Rep. Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.), married her brother as part of an immigration scheme and could face deportation if investigators substantiate wrongdoing.

Speaking Thursday with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Mullin said federal authorities are conducting an “ongoing investigation” into the Minnesota congresswoman’s immigration history.

“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States,” Mullin stated.

“We know he lives now in London.” He referred to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen whom Omar married in 2009.

Mullin suggested the probe extends beyond the marriage allegation to broader questions about her family’s migration.

“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.

He said that any action would be evidence-based rather than political: “If we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case, it’s an actual case, because they did things wrong.”

He added that immigration fraud has “no expiration” and that if proven someone “shouldn’t have been here in the first place,” deportation could follow.

The long-running allegation, which first circulated widely around Omar’s 2016 state legislative campaign, claims the marriage to Elmi was fraudulent and intended to facilitate his US immigration status.

Critics have pointed to discrepancies in records and statements over the years, though no federal charges or public conclusive findings have been released establishing that Elmi is Omar’s sibling or that the marriage constituted fraud.

Omar, who became a naturalized US citizen in 2000 at age 17 after arriving as a refugee from Somalia, has consistently and strongly denied the claims.

In 2016 she told MPR News: “Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.”

Her office and chief of staff have similarly dismissed the allegations as false, politically motivated, and a “ridiculous lie.”

Fact-checking organizations, including Snopes, have previously examined the rumor and found no credible evidence supporting it.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on specifics of any investigation.

A spokesperson said the agency does not discuss ongoing probes or potential actions as a matter of policy, while adding that “No one, including members of Congress, are above the law.”