Former Federal Immigration Judge Has Tough News for 'Ilhan Omar' - A Statute of Limitations Won't Save Her
Nathan Hansen, a former federal immigration judge, has warned that a statute of limitations won’t protect Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar if the Trump administration decides to prosecute her for immigration fraud.
Speaking with Fox News, Hansen, who served as an immigration judge for four months after being appointed by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, pushed back on concerns from critics that a statute of limitations might impede the potential prosecution of the Minnesota Democrat.
“My view of that is generally that fraud stops any statute of limitations,” he insisted to the network.
“In other words, if something isn’t disclosed or something’s hidden, then it would be unfair to the other party to toll a statute of limitations against them,” he continued. “That’s just sort of a general principle of law.”
The Minnesota Democrat known as Ilhan Omar (her real name is reportedly different) faces two federal investigations — one for potential immigration fraud, and another over alleged financial discrepancies.
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Continuing his remarks to Fox News, Hansen also stressed that Omar wouldn’t face immediate denaturalization and deportation if convicted of a crime.
“If somebody who’s a naturalized citizen — which I believe Ilhan Omar is — is convicted of a crime, that doesn’t automatically mean that they face denaturalization or anything like that,” he said.
“They would be handled by any type of other normal punishment that would come from the court,” Hansen added.
A criminal case, loss of citizenship and possible deportation.
Immigration attorney Nathan Hansen lays out three separate legal proceedings that could come into play if citizenship fraud allegations are substantiated.
Speaking on The @IngrahamAngle, Hansen explains that a criminal investigation could be followed by a civil denaturalization case before a federal judge and potentially a separate immigration court proceeding.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 24, 2026
If Omar committed immigration fraud, on the other hand, both would be on the table, though again Hansen stressed that the process for denaturalizing and deporting runs separate from the standard criminal justice system.
“A denaturalization proceeding … to strip somebody of their naturalization, is another proceeding, which would be a civil proceeding brought by the Department of Justice, presumably maybe on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, who handles most of these things,” he said.
“If there was some sort of nexus between the criminal conviction and somebody’s citizenship, it might be more likely that the Department of Justice would bring a denaturalization proceeding,” he continued.
“But I think it would be a discretionary matter within the people who are running the Justice Department,” Hansen added.
Hansen resigned from his post as a Trump administration judge in August, citing the need for more time with his family.
I resigned as an Immigration Judge to have more time with my family. With the commute it was an 11 to 12 hour a day commitment. I have school-age kids. I agree with the way people are currently running EOIR and I support their mission. It just is not for me at this time of life.
— Nathan Hansen (@nathanmhansen) August 8, 2026
Speaking to Fox News more broadly about immigration fraud, Hansen marveled at how many cases are currently in the queue.
“I think I would take it from a 30,000-foot view of just the amount of cases that the United States is facing right now of people coming here,” he said. “It’s got to be in the tens of millions of people coming here, I think, but certainly millions.”
He added that in Minnesota alone, there are anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 active immigration fraud cases that have no scheduled court date due to a massive backlog in the system.
“Whether you want to call it fraud or whatever, it’s like an overwhelming of the system and the system is not being used in the way in which it was intended,” he explained.
Hansen’s remarks come two weeks after Omar’s home was raided by the feds on Oct. 12.
According to The New York Times, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that it won’t yet unseal the search warrant that was used to justify the raid.
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