Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar,” said the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her.
Homan’s comments during a Saturday appearance on Fox News were the first remarks explicitly mentioning denaturalization and deportation in connection with Omar that have been attributed by name to a senior Trump administration official since federal agents searched the Minnesota House representative’s home on October 12.
The search of Omar’s home sparked major backlash and accusations that the Trump administration was using the federal government as a weapon to target a political rival that the president and his supporters have openly fantasized about denaturalizing and deporting.
The federal government’s investigation into the most prominent Somali American woman in the United States aims to determine whether Omar or her family violated any laws in obtaining her citizenship. The investigation was launched just weeks before the November midterm elections, in which Omar is a candidate.
Asked by a Fox News host on Saturday whether the investigation into Omar might involve “denaturalizing her and then deporting her,” Homan said, “Of course.”
“If you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize someone,” Homan said. “We’ve done it before. It’s a long and tedious process, but it’s been done before.
“And certainly, if the evidence is that way, it could happen.”
Homan also appeared to hint during his appearance on Fox News that the federal government was investigating Omar for other allegations — but declined to elaborate.
“I’m not going to go,” Homan said. “I know things, but that’s a question for the FBI.”
Omar – a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia – was a child when her father filled out immigration paperwork that the federal government is evidently reviewing. His father, Nur Omar Mohamed, died in June 2020.
In a letter sent after his home was searched, Omar’s lawyers accused the U.S. Justice Department of potentially influencing an election in violation of long-standing internal policy.
The decision to investigate Omar comes amid an increased push by the administration in its aggressive crackdown on immigrants. In addition to channeling resources and deploying masses of officials to arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants across the country, the administration has also stepped up its offensive on legal migration.
The administration has looked into dozens of cases across the country in which it attempts to denaturalize Americans born outside the United States, who it says obtained their citizenship fraudulently.
As Homan alluded to Sunday, the lengthy denaturalization process requires a federal investigation and lengthy court proceedings.
Nonetheless, in April, the U.S. Department of Justice reportedly identified nearly 400 foreign-born citizens it was seeking to investigate.
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The investigation into Omar follows unsubstantiated accusations from right-wing figures who support Trump that she obtained her citizenship fraudulently. Omar denies these accusations, which also include allegations that her ex-husband is her brother, whom she only married so that he could obtain immigration status in the United States.
The federal government reportedly seized Omar’s phone during the search of his home and issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to Omar’s relatives.
Omar’s lawyers have demanded that the federal government return his property and preserve any audio or video recordings taken during the search.
Omar said she and her family fled civil war in Somalia when she was eight and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya. She and her family came to the United States in the 1990s, and she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, according to her lawyers.
There is “no legitimate basis to suggest that she violated any law regarding her citizenship status,” said the letter from her lawyers, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
After the search of her home, Omar posted on X that she was “fine”.
“Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and militarize federal law enforcement,” Omar also wrote. She said: “Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns” for years – and “this is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”
“I will not be silenced,” Omar added.
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