White House will “go after” progressive Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for alleged immigration fraud, said Vice President JD Vance.
Vance, who is heading a new anti-fraud task force that convened for the first time on Friday, said on “The Benny Johnson Show” that the White House “definitely” believes Omar committed fraud, and they are actively looking into options on how to investigate and ultimately “go after” her for it.
“So we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said.
“And I talked to [White House deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller about this actually recently. We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud? How do you go after her? How do you investigate her? How do you actually do the thing? How do you build the case necessary to get some justice for the American people? There’s a related issue, Benny, which is she has been at the center of a lot of the worst fraudsters in the Somali community.”
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Omar pushed back against Vance’s claim that she committed immigration fraud.
Connor McNutt, Omar’s chief of staff, told Fox News in an emailed statement that Vance’s claim is “a ridiculous lie.”
“This is rich coming from someone who literally said they were willing to ‘create stories’ to redirect the media,” the statement said.
“This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers.”
President Donald Trump and other conservatives have long accused Omar of marrying her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to facilitate his move to the U.S. in 2009.
Omar allegedly married Elmi in a 2009 civil ceremony in Minnesota, after marrying Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi seven years earlier, according to a timeline published by the Daily Mail.
The report indicated Omar split from Elmi in 2011, reconciled with Hirsi and had a third child with him.
Omar claimed that she and Elmi separated in 2011, though the divorce did not take place until 2017.
Omar married Hirsi, who is not her brother, for a second time in 2018.
However, according to The New York Post, the two divorced a second time after she allegedly had an affair with Democratic consultant Tim Mynett.
In December, Omar addressed the accusations, calling the accusations “bigoted lies,” writing on social media that Trump was obsessed with her.
“He needs serious help,” Omar wrote on X at the time.
“Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead.”
Vance is leading a crackdown on fraud being committed on social services in the U.S., particularly in Minnesota.
Omar has been knee deep in the Minnesota fraud scandal after dozens of Somalis in Minnesota were charged in the theft of $1 billion in taxpayer money for state and federal social services programs, including $300 million from Feeding Our Future, a child nutrition program that fed low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
YouTuber Nick Shirley exposed nearly a dozen Somali-run daycare centers for not actually providing services.
Omar attacked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for targeting Somali communities throughout Minnesota, even trying to claim in December that Somalis were victims of the welfare fraud scheme.
Vance announced in February that the administration would halt some funding for Medicaid in Minnesota over fraud concerns.
He said that the action was to “ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”