Citizenship is, or at least ought to be, a revered right and privilege in America. Unfortunately, it has been the subject of incredibly problematic debate in recent years, not least of which is the Supreme Court’s decidedly regrettable ruling on birthright citizenship. The latest controversy involves Ilhan Omar, whose citizenship has come under scrutiny amid revelations of birthdate shenanigans.
Just yesterday, our Douglas Andrews reported on the Monday morning raid conducted at the Minneapolis Democrat’s home by federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of DHS. It was part of an investigation into Omar’s alleged immigration fraud that possibly included a sham “marriage” to her own brother.
“No one is above the law,” said Omar herself in 2023 after the criminal indictment of Donald Trump by a Manhattan grand jury.
Here’s hoping she was right.
According to the New York Post, “The Minnesota pol has long claimed that she received what’s known as derivative citizenship through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, who she said became a naturalized citizen in 2000, five years after coming into the country from war-torn Somalia.”
“I became a citizen actually before I turned 18,” Omar said in a September 2018 interview just before winning election to the House. “My father became a citizen, and so I got my citizenship through that process.”
However, it has now come to light that Omar’s congressional office changed her birthdate in 2019, which could change her derivative citizenship.
“On May 17, 2019, Library staff were informed by Rep. Omar’s congressional staff that her birth year was incorrect and requested that we change it to 1982,” the director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library wrote in an email dated May 24, 2019. “Rep. Omar’s congressional staff are working with Wikipedia and with the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and other sources to correct her birth year on those sites. As of today, the birth year has not been corrected on the two sites I mentioned.”
One former opponent of Omar’s, AJ Kern, explains why this matters quite a lot: “For derivative citizenship, two things have to be true — one, her father had to naturalize; and two, she still had to be a minor — and what I have found is that it’s highly likely that neither of those things are true.” Kern filed a complaint, which may be part of what led to Monday’s raid.
To the point about Omar’s father, the New York Post also reported this week that one impetus for the raid might be that her dad’s immigration records are missing or nonexistent. In short, it’s not clear that he was a citizen.
As for Omar being a minor, the issue is simple: If she was born in 1982, as her staff edited the birthdate to be, then she would have been a minor at the time of her father’s supposed naturalization. If she was born in 1981, as recorded before the edit, then she should have been 18 and no longer a minor. She would have been required to complete the naturalization process as an adult herself, which she did not. Clearly, then, she had a motive for making 1982 the official record.
It’s true that in Africa — especially Somalia — a birthdate might be more a matter of opinion than of fact. But that doesn’t help Omar’s case; in fact, it illustrates why citizenship should be diligently protected, not given away like candy from a parade float.
Indeed, don’t forget that Omar utterly hates America and everything it was founded to be. It seems to me that she shouldn’t want citizenship, much less to “represent” part of this country in Congress. Alas, that’s the allure of fame and power.
Naturally and maybe even understandably, Omar dismissed the raid while leaving its implications unaddressed. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar told her supporters in an X post on Monday following the raid. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”
Perhaps she forgot that 2023 quote: “No one is above the law.”
If the Justice Department concludes that Omar and/or her dad committed immigration fraud, the administration could pursue either criminal or civil denaturalization. There’s a 10-year statute of limitations on criminal denaturalization, but if she lied about her birthdate on any legal forms since entering Congress, it would be within the window.
Maybe I’m assuming guilt here, but in the shameless tradition of Somali fraud, Omar is raising money off of the investigation. “Stand with Ilhan Omar,” said her campaign email. “Donald Trump and DHS have opened a baseless, partisan investigation into Ilhan Omar, and she needs us by her side as they escalate their attacks.” Supporters can “chip in whatever you can to make sure Ilhan can beat Trump and keep fighting for our progressive values in Congress.”
Perhaps even more shamelessly, House Democrats are promoting legislation to abolish the Department of Homeland Security entirely.
In short, this whole sordid tale is a reminder of some key truths about Democrats:
They don’t value citizenship but treat it as a commodity for political advantage.
They want to import any and all comers from around the globe without serious efforts to manage who gets to stay. It’s essentially colonization through mass migration.
They don’t respect the Rule of Law, don’t think it applies to them, and want to abolish law enforcement.
They think the answer to every problem is socialism.
They are dangerously wrong.
