Breaking
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is facing a threat of expulsion from Congress after a federal court filing identified her as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital he will push to remove her if the Justice Department finds she committed immigration fraud. “You can’t be in Congress if you’re not a citizen of the United States, but if it isn’t automatic, I absolutely will demand expulsion immediately,” Fine said.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office filed the motion, has stood by the name. “Her real name is Ilhan Nur Sayed Elmi,” Pirro said in an interview, according to the International Business Times. Asked about the name Omar uses, Pirro replied, “You’ll have to ask her what she considers her name.” Omar’s spokesperson pushed back hard, telling Fox News Digital, “This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name.”
Details & Background
The filing was submitted Wednesday, Oct. 21, in federal court in Washington. It asks for more time to respond to news organizations seeking to unseal records connected to the search warrant for Omar’s home, according to The Epoch Times. Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the home on Oct. 12 in a probe of possible false statements on immigration and naturalization documents. According to the Associated Press, federal authorities have also issued grand jury subpoenas to family members and seized her cellphone. A separate inquiry into Omar’s financial disclosures began under President Joe Biden in 2024, Fox News reported.
The name has drawn attention because the man Omar legally married in 2009 is Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Critics have long alleged that Elmi is Omar’s brother, a claim she denies. Investigators are also reportedly examining questions about her birth date and naturalization records, according to a Washington Post report cited by the International Business Times. Pirro declined to say whether Omar is serving in Congress under an alias, and neither the filing nor Pirro’s remarks establish that fraud occurred.
Reactions
Fine went further in his comments to Fox News Digital. “I assume that she’s not a citizen, so we might not even have to do that,” he said of an expulsion vote. He also accused Democrats of looking the other way: “I don’t think Democrats think you should have to be American. They don’t believe in borders.” President Donald Trump has already called on Omar to resign, writing on Truth Social that “because she used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume she must IMMEDIATELY resign from Congress.”
Omar has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated. In an interview with MS NOW this week, she said the brother allegation began when someone claimed that “he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” but she answered “Not to my knowledge” when asked directly whether she was related to Elmi. Her office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Fine’s expulsion threat.
Why This Matters to You
The Constitution requires House members to have been U.S. citizens for at least seven years, and the House can expel a member with a two-thirds vote. A criminal investigation alone does not remove anyone from office. If investigators prove that Omar’s citizenship was obtained through false statements, the government can go to court to revoke it, and that would raise serious questions about whether she can keep her seat.
For now, Omar has not been charged, and no court has made any finding of fraud. But the stakes reach beyond one district in Minneapolis. Millions of immigrants follow the rules to become citizens, and Americans expect those same rules to apply to the powerful. With the election less than two weeks away, the question of who Ilhan Omar is on paper could become one of the defining fights of the final stretch.
