Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Sunday that the immigration fraud allegations against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) could derail her entire career if true.
“Obviously, Ilhan Omar is in a ton of trouble,” York said on Fox Business’s Sunday Morning Futures, “a whole lot of trouble right now because, the bottom line is, she might be in the country as a result of immigration fraud.”
Omar has faced various fraud allegations during President Donald Trump’s second term in office, ranging from financial fraud to immigration fraud. Trump said in January that the representative was being investigated over discrepancies in her financial records, showing her husband’s assets listed in the millions in what Omar described as an “accounting error.”
In March, Vice President JD Vance said the Justice Department was also looking into allegations that Omar married her biological brother from Somalia to allow him to gain U.S. residency.
The latest allegations stem from whether the congresswoman should have ever become a U.S. citizen. Investigators are looking into whether Omar’s birthdate was changed during her citizenship application from 18 years old to 17 to obtain automatic citizenship through her father’s naturalization as a minor. Omar has previously said a clerical error listed her birth year as 1981, which would have made her 18. If the allegations are true, Omar could face denaturalization.
“If that is true, then everything basically in her professional life falls apart being a member of Congress,” York said. “So that’s a huge, huge problem.”
OBAMA RIPS ‘APPALLING’ INVESTIGATION OF ILHAN OMAR: ‘SHOULD OUTRAGE ALL AMERICANS’
Omar’s home in Washington was raided on Oct. 12, less than a month before the midterm elections. The representative has denounced the allegations as a smear campaign by Trump.
York said the timing of the October raid could prove problematic.
“Now, listen, I think there are issues with the Justice Department moving forward with this case in a very public way, just two to three weeks before an election,” York said. “And I know a lot of Democrats have an objection to that, and I think that’s reasonable.”