Family Affairs: Omar Family Members Subpoenaed in Immigration Probe

It's getting real in MN-05. And in Washington, D.C.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security began yesterday by executing search warrants at Ilhan Omar's DC digs. By the day's end, they had served grand-jury subpoenas on Omar's sister and another unnamed family member, according to the New York Times. That indicates some preparation for prosecution, although it's not yet clear how Omar's immigration status could play into criminal charges at this late date:

Federal agents investigating Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, have issued subpoenas to some relatives as officials scour her family’s history for evidence of fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, according to people familiar with the matter.

A sister of Ms. Omar’s, Sahra Noor, received a subpoena, as did at least one other member of her family circle, according to people familiar with the investigation. On Monday, D.H.S. agents executed a search warrant at her home in Washington, carrying out boxes of documents, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss investigative steps.

Ms. Noor, a health care professional and author, did not reply to requests for comment sent by email and made in a call with someone who identified herself as a daughter of Ms. Noor’s.

The Homeland Security investigation appears to have centered on the timing and claims of Omar's father, Nur Omar Mohammed, at the time of his entry to the US:

The specifics of the investigation into Ms. Omar remain unclear, but in recent months, federal investigators have been scrutinizing her family’s immigration history. The inquiry focuses in part on whether Ms. Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, lied or omitted information in immigration forms before becoming a U.S. citizen.

There are actually two issues involving the father, and both of them are dangerous to Omar's status as a naturalized American and member of Congress. First, it appears that her father lied about Omar's age to qualify her for naturalization, a process that cannot start until a person turns 18. Allegedly, Omar was 17 at the time of naturalization, which would invalidate that status and disqualify her from Congress.

If that seems like a technicality, stand by for the second issue. The U.S. granted Nur asylum in 1995 when he represented himself as a teacher displaced by the civil war in Somalia. It turns out that Nur may have been a colonel in the regime forces accused of atrocities in that war, which would immediately invalidate all legal status within the US:

But, an expert scholar exclusively told The Post that Nur “misrepresented himself as a refugee” to US authorities when he was really a prominent military commander in the Somalia dictatorship that killed as many as 200,000 people.

“He was a full colonel in Siad Barre’s military regime,” historian and Oxford University doctoral researcher Mohamed Haji Ingiriis told The Post. “Ilhan’s father was never an educator. 

Nur, born in the Somali coastal town of Bandarbeyla in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, joined Somalia’s military in the late 60s, with conflicting reports suggesting he trained in the Soviet Union or Egypt. 

He allegedly played a key role in Siad Barre’s army after the bloodthirsty dictator seized power in a Soviet-backed coup in 1969.

If true, that's a huge problem for Omar, who was certainly old enough to have known about the fraud. The NY Post explains further:

US immigration law strictly forbids granting refugee status to “any person who ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Nur is said to have led multiple military brigades, become a regiment commander in Barre’s regime and played a “significant role” in the Somali-Ethiopian war between July 1977 and March 1978, according to former army officer Yusuf Ismail Faraton who served with him and also moved to Minneapolis.

If true, then none of Nur's family should have been eligible for asylum. Their current statuses would be revoked under these conditions, as has happened to former Nazis who hid their connections when entering the United States in previous decades. 

That certainly explains the DHS interest in Omar. However, this kind of expulsion is administrative, not criminal, and would not involve grand-jury testimony. Why would the DoJ issue grand-jury subpoenas? That may well be a completely different investigation at the DoJ, one involving Omar's mind-boggling changes in her financial disclosures:

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro revealed Tuesday that her office is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar's financial disclosures, opening a new chapter in the controversy surrounding the Minnesota Democrat's previously reported multimillion-dollar assets.

Speaking on Fox News' "America Reports," Pirro said her office was examining Omar's financial disclosures, which previously showed that the reported value of businesses tied to her husband, Tim Mynett, had surged from as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.

The latest development comes one day after federal agents searched Omar's Washington, D.C., home as part of an ongoing criminal investigation involving her immigration paperwork, two sources familiar with the probe told Fox News Digital.

Perhaps the subpoenas relate to both issues, but only one can survive a challenge on the basis of the statute of limitations. Both, however, may well derail Omar's political career and perhaps her ability to live in the US. If the subpoenas relate to Omar's financial issues, perhaps the DoJ has some indication that this is also a family affair. 

As Wilford Brimley declared in Absence of Malice: "Wonderful thing, subpoenas." Stay tuned. 

Note: Be sure to catch up to the whole Omar drama at Power Line. Scott Johnson, who has been reporting on these issues for a decade, has a nice roundup post today with lots of links. 

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