Stripping Ilhan Omar's Citizenship and Deporting Her 'Absolutely' Possible, Says Trump's Border Chief Homan

President Donald Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan has commented that it is 'absolutely' possible to strip US Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her. He said this during an appearance on Fox News on Saturday.

This is the first statement by any top official of the Trump administration directly linking Omar by name with citizenship stripping and deportation since federal agents searched this Minnesota representative's home on October 12. Officials allege that Omar or her family may have violated the law at the time of obtaining citizenship.

The incident of the search of Omar's home has created a strong reaction. Critics allege that the Trump administration is using the federal government as a tool to target a political opponent — an opponent about whom the president and his supporters have openly been fantasising about citizenship stripping and deportation.

The federal government's investigation is examining whether this politician, America's most well-known Somali-American, or her family violated any law at the time she obtained citizenship. The investigation began just a few weeks before the November midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot.

On Saturday, when the Fox News host asked Homan whether the investigation against Omar could involve the matter of 'stripping her citizenship and then deporting her,' Homan replied, 'Absolutely it can.'

Homan said, 'There is a process to strip someone's citizenship if someone lied in the process of obtaining citizenship. We have done it before. It is a long and complicated process, but it has happened before. And absolutely, if the evidence goes that way, it can happen.'

In the same programme, Homan indicated that the federal government is investigating Omar on other allegations as well, but refused to give details. He said, 'I won't go into that. I know something, but that is a question to ask the FBI.'

Omar is a naturalised American citizen who came from Somalia. When she was a child, her father filled in the immigration documents, which are now believed to be under the federal government's scrutiny. Her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, died in June 2020.

In a letter sent after the search of her home, Omar's lawyers alleged that the US Department of Justice had violated long-standing internal policies in an attempt to influence an election. This step has come at a time when the administration has intensified its hardline anti-immigration crackdown.

The administration, on the one hand, has deployed vast resources and officials in the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants, and on the other hand has also increased its attacks against legal immigration. Across the country, the administration is running about a dozen such cases in which attempts are being made to strip the citizenship of citizens born outside the United States on allegations of obtaining citizenship through fraud.

As Homan indicated on Sunday, the citizenship-stripping process is a long one — it requires a federal investigation and lengthy court proceedings. Even so, according to information available up to April, the US Department of Justice had reportedly identified about 400 foreign-born citizens for investigation.

Behind the investigation against Omar are baseless allegations by pro-Trump right-wing individuals that she obtained citizenship through fraud. Omar denies these allegations. Among the allegations is also the claim that her former husband is her brother, whom she married only to obtain immigration benefits.

It has been learned that at the time of the home search, the federal government seized Omar's phone and issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to Omar's relatives. Omar's lawyers have demanded that the federal government return her property and preserve any audio or video recorded during the search.

Omar has said that at the age of eight, she and her family fled the civil war in Somalia and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya. They came to the United States in the 1990s and, according to her lawyers, she became a naturalised US citizen in 2000.

The lawyers' letter stated that there is 'no legitimate basis' for any suggestion that Omar violated any law concerning her citizenship status. The letter was first published by the Wall Street Journal.

After the search of her home, Omar wrote on X that she was 'fine.' She also wrote, 'Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and to weaponise federal law enforcement.' Her claim is that Trump has targeted her for years with baseless lies and propaganda, and this is the latest step of that campaign of political intimidation. Now, after Homan's latest remarks, the controversy is likely to become more intense.