What does the Ilhan Omar investigation mean for US citizenship?

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is fighting to keep her citizenship. She is under investigation by the Trump administration, whose officials suggest the immigrant lawmaker may not have lawfully become a citizen. Critics say the White House is weaponizing its powers to intimidate one of its fiercest critics in Congress.

‘Creeping totalitarianism’

The administration aims to “ultimately deport” Omar, said The Wall Street Journal. The probe is focused on whether Omar or her father were truthful in their immigration and naturalization paperwork after leaving Somalia in the 1990s. There is a “process to denaturalize somebody” who has lied on their citizenship paperwork, said Border Czar Tom Homan on Fox News. “If she violated the law, then she'll be held accountable."

Omar denies committing fraud. Trump would “love to eliminate one of the most effective progressive voices in Congress,” her office said in a statement to the Journal.

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“This a case of creeping totalitarianism,” John Ganz said at Unpopular Front. Trumpism originated with attacks on President Barack Obama’s citizenship, grounded in a fundamental belief that “some Americans are not really Americans, that their political rights are illegitimate.” The investigation of Omar is the culmination of an effort to “transform citizenship from an inviolable right into a privilege granted or withdrawn at the sovereign’s discretion.”

Omar would “probably not” be under investigation if she were not in Congress, David Harsanyi said at the Washington Examiner. But she “isn’t above the law, either.” If Omar gained her citizenship through dishonest means, then she “at the very minimum should not be serving in Congress.”

‘No reason to believe it will stop’

The investigation demonstrates how the Trump administration sees citizenship “not as a right or a responsibility but as a reward” that can be taken away, Emily Tamkin said at Forward. This power can be easily misused for “silencing political opposition.”

Omar is facing investigation “because she has dared to criticize the president,” Obama said on X. There is “no reason to believe it will stop with her.” The Trump administration’s “transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans.”