White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed on air that ICE is conducting a criminal investigation into allegations involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, a probe he and other senior administration officials say centers on suspected immigration fraud.
Homan appeared on "The Sunday Briefing" and, when pressed on whether he could confirm an active investigation into the Minnesota Democrat, did not hedge. He told the program plainly that ICE is involved and that Homeland Security Investigations, the agency's criminal investigative arm, is handling the case.
Omar has long faced allegations that she married a man critics claim is her brother as part of an immigration scheme. She has repeatedly denied the charge and dismissed it in December as "bigoted lies" on social media. The claim has not been proven in public records. But Homan's on-air confirmation marks the most direct public acknowledgment yet that federal law enforcement is treating the matter as a criminal case, not just political noise.
Asked directly whether he was confirming an investigation involving Omar, Homan did not equivocate:
"I'm confirming that ICE is, yeah, look, I said months ago that there's something that's been reported and needs to be looked at."
He added that he could not share operational details of an active case but made clear that the inquiry is real and moving forward.
"I know things are going on, but I can't give specifics of what's happening."
Homan then broadened his remarks into a statement of principle that applied the same standard to members of Congress as to anyone else under investigation.
"If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law. So, I'll leave it at that. We'll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation."
That framing, "regardless if they're a congressman or not", was deliberate. It signals the administration views Omar's congressional office as no shield against a federal probe. The criminal investigation into Omar has drawn attention precisely because it targets a sitting member of Congress, a step federal agencies rarely take lightly.
Homan is not the only senior official speaking publicly. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin went further on a recent podcast appearance, stating flatly that the department has reached its own conclusions about the underlying allegation.
"Something's going to happen.... We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States. We know he now lives in London."
Mullin also raised the possibility that the investigation could expand beyond Omar herself.
"There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with.... If we can prove it, that you shouldn't have been here in the first place, we will deport you."
The reference to "the whole family migration" suggests investigators are examining a broader chain of immigration applications, not just one marriage. Mullin's use of "we will deport you" pointed directly at the most severe potential consequence: removal from the country.
ICE has separately withheld records related to the Omar probe, citing active enforcement proceedings, a move consistent with Homan's description of an ongoing criminal case.
Vice President JD Vance has been the most blunt voice in the administration on the subject. In a March podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Vance said he had spoken with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller about potential legal action against Omar.
Vance did not couch the allegation as a suspicion:
"We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America."
By May, Vance stated publicly that the Department of Justice was looking into whether Omar committed immigration fraud. Whether the DOJ inquiry and the DHS/ICE investigation are the same probe or separate tracks remains unclear from public statements.
In the same May remarks, Vance acknowledged the limits of what had been established publicly while still pressing the point:
"You read the things about Ilhan Omar... who she married and whether she didn't marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody's entitled to equal justice under the law."
That last phrase, "equal justice under the law", carried a double edge. It promised Omar due process. It also promised that her status as a member of Congress would not buy her a pass. The broader pattern of scrutiny around Omar extends well beyond immigration questions; a congressional ethics panel previously dismissed a financial misconduct case against her, a result that left many accountability advocates unsatisfied.
Homan also addressed the legal mechanism that could be used if the investigation produces results: denaturalization. The process strips U.S. citizenship from individuals who obtained it through fraud or misrepresentation. It is rare but not unprecedented.
"If someone lies through that process to becoming a citizen, and we can prove they, in fact, lied or misrepresented themselves, [we can absolutely denaturalize them]. We've done it before many times over the last 40 years I've been around, so it's a process."
Homan described denaturalization as "very serious", a characterization that applies both to the gravity of the penalty and to the evidentiary standard required to pursue it. Stripping citizenship from a sitting congresswoman would be without modern precedent and would almost certainly trigger prolonged legal battles.
The DHS investigation into Omar's immigration history has been building for months, and Homan's public confirmation that the case is criminal, not merely administrative, raises the stakes considerably.
Omar has repeatedly denied the marriage fraud allegation. In December, she dismissed the claims as "bigoted lies" on social media and wrote that Trump was "obsessed with her." Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's office for comment on Homan's latest remarks; no response was reported.
Her denials have remained consistent, but they have also remained general. She has not addressed the specific investigative steps that Homan, Mullin, and Vance have described publicly. Whether that changes as the probe advances is an open question.
Omar has faced scrutiny on multiple fronts in recent years. Separately, police raided her son's apartment and seized firearms, an episode during which she declined to answer reporters' questions.
For all the public statements, significant gaps remain. No charges have been filed. No arrests have been made. No formal legal actions have been confirmed. The specific evidence HSI has gathered, or has not gathered, remains undisclosed, consistent with standard practice for active criminal investigations.
It is also unclear whether the DOJ inquiry Vance referenced and the DHS/ICE investigation Homan confirmed are one coordinated effort or two parallel tracks. The identity of the man Omar allegedly married, the individual critics claim is her brother, who Mullin said now lives in London, has not been officially named in these public statements.
These are not small details. A criminal investigation is not a conviction, and public statements from political appointees are not indictments. But the administration is clearly signaling that it considers the evidence serious enough to pursue, and that Omar's seat in Congress will not slow the process down.
When three of the most senior officials in an administration, the border czar, the DHS secretary, and the vice president, all go on the record about the same investigation, the message is not subtle. The question now is whether the evidence matches the rhetoric, and whether the system follows through where it has looked away before.
