Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says a federal investigation has found that Rep. Ilhan Omar married her own brother to fraudulently bring him into the country, and that deportation remains on the table.

Mullin made the extraordinary disclosure during a conversation with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, breaking with the longstanding norm that federal officials do not discuss active investigations publicly. He did not hedge. He did not qualify. He said the Department of Homeland Security has the goods.

"We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States," Mullin told Johnson. "We know he lives now in London."

Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000 at age 17, has long denied the allegation. Her office did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment on Mullin's statements.

But the DHS secretary went further than any federal official has before, describing the investigation as open-ended and the potential consequences as severe. Asked whether there is a statute of limitations on immigration fraud, Mullin was blunt.

"If you lied about certain things about your application. There's no expiration to that. If we can prove it, that you shouldn't have been here in the first place, we'll deport you."

Mullin frames the probe as law enforcement, not politics

The DHS secretary insisted the investigation is not politically motivated. "When we move forward, it's not political," he said. He described the matter as one of possible illegal activity, falsification of immigration documents, which is a deportable offense under federal law.

A DHS spokesperson, asked about Mullin's remarks, issued a carefully worded statement that neither confirmed nor denied the specifics. "As a matter of policy, DHS does not comment on specific investigative techniques, ongoing investigations, or potential future actions," the spokesperson said. The statement added: "No one, including members of Congress, are above the law."

The spokesperson's refusal to deny Mullin's claims is notable on its own. Agencies routinely push back when a cabinet secretary's public statements overreach the evidence. DHS did not do that here.

Allegations trace back nearly a decade to a Somali community website

The claim that Omar married a sibling first surfaced in 2016 on Somalispot, a community website that published a report identifying Omar's second husband as her brother. The allegation gained traction over the following years as reporters and investigators dug into her marital history.

Omar married her first husband, Ahmed Hirsi, in 2002 in a Muslim ceremony that was never registered with the state. She then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a UK citizen, in February 2009, according to the New York Post. She dissolved that marriage in December 2017. She later married political consultant Tim Mynett, her current husband.

Elmi reportedly attended North Dakota State University, Omar's alma mater, and graduated in 2012, per the Somalispot website. Mullin claims Elmi now lives in London.

In 2020, the Daily Mail published an exclusive report featuring Abdihakim Osman, described as a past friend of Omar's. Osman told the outlet that Omar had said she wanted to get her brother papers so he could stay in the United States, at a time when she was still married to Hirsi.

"No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later."

That was Osman's account of how the second marriage came to light. If accurate, it suggests the union was never intended to function as a real marriage, only as a vehicle for immigration paperwork.

Omar has repeatedly dodged questions about controversies swirling around her and her family. She has consistently denied the brother-marriage allegation, though she has never provided a detailed public rebuttal explaining her relationship to Elmi.

Deportation of a naturalized citizen would face steep legal hurdles

Even if the investigation produces conclusive evidence, stripping citizenship from a naturalized American and deporting her would be an extraordinary legal step. Omar became a citizen in 2000, more than two decades ago. Federal law does allow denaturalization if the government can prove that citizenship was obtained through fraud or misrepresentation, but the burden of proof is high, and the process typically moves through federal courts, not administrative channels.

Mullin did not address these legal complexities in his public remarks. He framed the matter in simpler terms: if you lied on your immigration paperwork, there is no expiration date, and you can be removed. Whether that straightforward framing survives contact with the federal judiciary is another question entirely.

Both President Trump and Vice President Vance have publicly stated their belief that Omar committed immigration fraud, according to the New York Post. Trump has posted about Omar on social media dozens of times and has pushed to have her investigated.

Omar faces scrutiny on multiple fronts beyond the marriage allegations

The DHS investigation is not the only cloud hanging over the Minnesota congresswoman. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has raised pointed questions about Omar's personal finances, specifically the dramatic growth in her net worth. Comer told reporter Catherine Herridge that Omar's wealth "just out of nowhere, skyrocketed," and said he is considering subpoenaing her husband Tim Mynett over his investment fund business practices.

"There are a lot of questions as to how her husband accumulated so much wealth over the past two years. It's not possible. It's not. I'm a money guy. It's not possible," Comer said. Omar's net worth allegedly jumped from roughly $51,000 to as much as $30 million in one to two years.

Separately, Omar has documented ties to Safari Restaurant, whose owners were convicted in the Feeding Our Future case, a massive fraud that siphoned $250 million from federal child food aid programs in Minnesota. Her sister registered a consulting firm at the same address as convicted fraudsters in that case.

Senate testimony has also drawn connections between Minnesota's broader welfare fraud scandal and politicians in the state. Investigative journalist Nick Shirley testified before a Senate committee about Medicaid fraud tied to Omar and former Governor Tim Walz.

Omar has also faced questions about her congressional office operating inside a Somali center that received redirected donations from convicted fraudsters. Taken together, the pattern is one of a public official surrounded by fraud investigations at every turn, personal, financial, and institutional.

Key questions the investigation has not yet answered

Mullin's public disclosure raises as many questions as it answers. He did not specify what evidence the DHS investigation relies on beyond what has already been reported publicly. He did not say whether Omar has been formally notified of the investigation. He did not identify the specific immigration statutes under review. And he did not explain the legal basis for his claim that Elmi lives in London.

Ahmed Elmi has not made any public statements about the allegations. Ahmed Hirsi has not commented either. Whether the 2020 account from Abdihakim Osman forms part of the DHS investigation's evidentiary basis, or stands as a separate piece of the public record, remains unclear.

The DHS spokesperson's statement, declining to confirm or deny specifics while asserting that no one is above the law, leaves the door wide open. It is the kind of statement agencies issue when they want to preserve their options without boxing themselves in.

Mullin, for his part, showed no interest in preserving ambiguity. He stated flatly that the department knows Omar married her brother. He said the investigation is ongoing. And he said deportation is a possible outcome.

If DHS can back up what its secretary said on the record, the legal and political consequences for Omar would be severe. If it cannot, Mullin will have made one of the most reckless public statements by a sitting cabinet official in recent memory. Either way, the congresswoman from Minnesota now faces a federal investigation led by a department whose chief has already announced his conclusion.

When a cabinet secretary says "we know" on the record, the public has every right to expect the proof will follow, and every reason to demand it.