Could Ilhan Omar Lose Her Citizenship? Legal Expert Weighs In on DHS Marriage Fraud Probe

Former federal prosecutor and immigration attorney Michael Wildes told Fox News that prosecutors would face a high legal threshold in any marriage-fraud case. The government would have to prove that the marriage was knowingly entered into primarily to evade immigration law and obtain an immigration benefit. Wildes also noted that the age of the alleged conduct could create statute-of-limitations issues. Fox News

Questions about denaturalization are even more complicated. Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000, years before the 2009 marriage at the center of the allegations. That means the alleged marriage itself would not automatically invalidate her earlier citizenship. A denaturalization case would instead require evidence that her own naturalization was illegally obtained or secured through concealment or willful misrepresentation of a material fact. Federal law imposes a demanding evidentiary standard in such proceedings. Fox News

Omar has said DHS has not contacted her about the investigation and has dismissed the allegations as longstanding political attacks. Wildes likewise said he had not seen publicly available evidence that, in his view, currently justified prosecution. Fox News

For now, the most important distinction is between an investigation and a proven case: federal officials have confirmed the former, but no charges or findings of fraud have been announced.