Cruz says Rep Ilhan Omar could face jail time, deportation if marriage allegation proves true
Senate Republican outlines potential charges, including marriage fraud and tax violations, after Trump’s rally comments
A top Senate Republican argued that if allegations against “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that she married her brother to enter the U.S. were true, she’d be breaking several laws.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined the long-standing scrutiny against Omar Friday after President Donald Trump revived the allegations during a rally pushing his affordability agenda in Pennsylvania earlier this week.
In a post on X responding to a White House social media account that charged, “Yes, [Omar] married her brother,” Cruz listed a trio of federal and state laws the progressive lawmaker may have violated.
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, alleged that if the allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., married her husband to enter the country were true, she’d be breaking a trio of federal and state laws. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“If this is true, then Omar faces criminal liability under three different statutes,” Cruz said.
Cruz argued that Omar could have committed federal marriage fraud, which stipulates that it is a felony to knowingly enter into a marriage to evade immigration laws, and could lead to up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and deportation.
Omar was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. in 1995 after her family was granted asylum. She became a citizen in 2000. Omar, who is Muslim, has been married legally three times, first in a religious marriage to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002, then to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 before later divorcing and legally marrying Hirsi. In 2020, she married political aide Tim Mynett.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on inflation at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Cruz noted that Omar could also be breaking Minnesota’s state incest law, a felony in the state punishable by jail time up to 10 years. He also contended that she could be liable for tax fraud, specifically if joint tax returns were filed while she was not legally married.
That violation would levy up to a $100,000 fine and up to three years in prison.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with husband Tim Mynett during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Senate Republican’s legal analysis of the situation comes after Trump resurrected the unsubstantiated claims that Omar had married her brother for immigration purposes that have dogged the lawmaker since she entered politics nearly a decade ago. She has denied the allegations.
Still, Trump charged, “She married her brother to get in, right?”
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“If I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I’d last for about two hours or something less than that? She married her brother to get in,” he said. “Therefore, she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out.”
THE ILHAN OMAR CON
Posted in April 2021
Ilhan Omar
Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1982. According to the biography posted on her own website, she lived there for around eight years before her family fled to a refugee camp in Kenya, moving to the United States four years later, and eventually settling in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1997.
In a 2018 interview with the Intercept website’s “Deconstructed” podcast, Omar said she became a naturalized U.S. citizen before she turned 18 years old, explaining that, “My father became a citizen and so I got my citizenship through that process.”
In the same interview, she said her family resettled in the U.S. in 1995. Since a would-be naturalized citizen must first live in the U.S. as a permanent resident for five years, 2000 would be the earliest year in which Omar’s father (and Omar herself) could become citizens. Since Omar was born in October 1982, she turned 18 in October 2000. So, based on the sequence of events presented by Omar, it appears she became a U.S. citizen at the age of 17, some time between January and October 2000 —
Although Omar’s account makes sense, and we found no substantive dispute over it, we were unable to locate any official documentation that supports that version of events. We asked Omar’s spokesperson and district director to provide any official documentation that would confirm the date of her naturalization, but we received no such evidence.
The Congresswoman’s spokesperson reiterated that she became a U.S. citizen in 2000, and pointed out that an individual cannot be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives without demonstrating citizenship, but the spokesperson did not have Omar’s “personal government documents.”
Until and unless evidence of that nature becomes available to us, definitively establishing that Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 she has pull off one of the greatest cons in history.
Excerpts above taken from article by Dan MacGuill Published 16 July 2019
CLICK HERE FOR IMMIGRATION FRAUD PERPETRATED BY THIS RAT
In the AP story, Omar’s replies to all this are those of the victim combined with overtones of the royal “we”:
“We choose not to further the narratives of those who would oppose us” Omar’s statement said, adding that she believes the claims are being made by people who want to stop a black, female Muslim from sitting in Congress.
The chronology of all this, briefly, follows:
- 1982 — Born in Somalia;
- 1991 — Went to refugee camp in Kenya;
- 1995 — Came to United States as a refugee, becoming a citizen at some later point;
- 2002 — Took out a marriage license to marry Ahmed Hirsi (AKA Ahmed Aden), but did not marry him except in a Muslim ceremony; they had two kids;
- 2008 — Parted from Hirsi; a Muslim divorce, not recorded, took place;
- 2009 — Married Ahmed Elmi; a marriage certificate exists;
- 2011 — Parted from Elmi, with a Muslim divorce;
- 2012 — Reunited with Hirsi and had a third child;
- 2017 — Formally divorced Elmi (after being elected to the legislature);
- 2018 — Married (re-married?) Hirsi and was nominated for Congress.
At the very least, a busy lady — one with a fondness for guys named Ahmed.