Legal Expert Jonathan Turley Says Ilhan Omar Could Be in Line for Denaturalization: 'Immigration Laws Are Very Clear'
Legal expert Jonathan Turley said that laws surrounding immigration fraud mean that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota could lose her citizenship if she’s found to have committed fraud.
Homeland Security Investigations raided Omar’s Washington-area home onMonday. The raid was part of what Fox News called a “criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child.”
A Department of Justice statement added little other than saying the raid was “part of an ongoing federal investigation,” which is “criminal” in nature.
“This investigation began under the Biden administration,” Turley noted in a video posted to X, saying that there have long been questions surrounding Omar’s history.
🚨 JUST IN: Legal expert Jonathan Turley says Ilhan Omar could face DENATURALIZATION if prosecutors prove that she obtained citizenship with FALSE INFORMATION — and now, grand jury subpoenas are hitting her family members
“The U.S. government’s position has always been that if you have information there that is untrue, where you would NOT have been made a citizen, then you can be DENATURALIZED.” 🔥
“There’s question as to the stated age of Representative Omar, which allowed her to basically piggyback on the process of her father, instead of having to file a separate effort or filing for naturalization.”
“I think that these family members very likely are related to the immigration side of this.”
The AGE issue is because she reportedly had her birth date changed after-the-fact, suggesting Omar might’ve been TOO OLD to piggyback citizenship off her father
And there you have it: lying to obtain citizenship and trying to COVER IT UP as a CONGRESSWOMAN?!
I think Omar is crooked, and she knows it.
HSI carried out the raid, a judge signed off, subpoenas are flying, and the CASE IS OFFICIALLY BUILDING 👏🏻
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 14, 2026
When asked which of the various controversies surrounding Omar should be considered to have precedence, Turley replied. “I think that we should focus on the immigration side of the investigation because that’s the one that has reached the point of an actual search of her residence.”
“I think that these family members very likely are related to the immigration side of this,” he said.
“The immigration laws are very clear. When you’re accused of illegally procuring citizenship or naturalization, it is not a defense that, ‘I was innocent in all of this,’” he said.
“The U.S. government’s position has always been that if you have information there that is untrue, where you would not have been made a citizen, then you can be denaturalized,” he said, noting that the standard of proof for denaturalization is high.
“There’s also question as to the stated age of Representative Omar, which allowed her to basically piggyback on the process of her father, instead of having to file a separate effort, filing for naturalization,” he said.
In previous comments cited by RealClearPolitics on Tuesday, Turley noted that Omar’s father “filled out much of the paperwork that may be the subject of this search. He had a record as a colonel in a really brutal regime, and there may be questions as to those original papers.”
He then explained why age matters.
“By saying that she was 17, she did not have to file for her own citizenship,” Turley said.
A report in the New York Post said that congressional staff pushed to have Omer’s official birth date changed from 1981 to 1982.
Former political rival A.J. Kern told the newspaper on Tuesaday that Omar “claims her citizenship narrative is that she derived citizenship through her father when she was a 17-year-old minor.”
“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,” he said, noting that a complaint to get to the truth of the matter was dismissed.
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