A 2009 marriage license application shows Rep. Ilhan Omar couldn't decide what her own name was when applying to marry Ahmed Elmi — the man alleged to be her brother — with her surname written, crossed out, replaced, then reverted on the same form.
For ordinary Americans who follow immigration law to the letter, the question is straightforward: if a sitting member of Congress obtained citizenship under a false identity, who else has gamed the system, and who in Washington is willing to look the other way?
According to Breitbart, citing the New York Post, an apparently certified copy from Hennepin County, Minnesota shows Omar's surname was initially written as "Omar," then crossed out and replaced with "Elmi," before a final edit reverted it to "Omar." Another revision on the document was written as "Ilhan Omar Elmi." The application is dated February 12, 2009. When asked whether the bride and groom were related by blood or adoption, the couple checked "no." The Post noted it is unclear who filled out the application but that it appears to have been written in one person's handwriting.
The document carries new weight amid a Department of Justice investigation into whether Omar committed fraud obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2000. In a court filing last week, the DOJ named her as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." A source familiar with the investigation told the Post that Omar is a fictitious name and that she was born with the last name Elmi — the same surname as the man she married.
Retired Minneapolis attorney Scott W. Johnson, who has investigated the allegations for nearly a decade, told the Post: "The whole thing is a red flag. Questions should be asked. She's never answered them."
When MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes recently asked Omar if she was related to Elmi, she answered, "Not to my knowledge." Omar has denied the allegations and called the investigation a racist conspiracy theory and politically motivated smear by Republicans and President Trump. Her office did not respond to the Post's request for comment on the marriage license application.
The establishment press has treated the document like radioactive material. As the Post noted, the marriage application image has circulated online for years and was first published by Alpha News in August 2016, but major outlets left it untouched.
The bipartisan picture is telling. The Post Millennial reports that the first investigation into whether Omar married her brother to secure him a green card started under the Obama administration in 2016. That probe was later shut down under Biden. Now Obama has publicly condemned the Trump administration's investigation as "appalling," posting that the government "can't selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs." He made no mention of the fact that his own administration launched the first look into the matter.
The Post Millennial also notes that Omar's age at naturalization has come under scrutiny. If she was 18 — not 17 — when her father became a citizen, she would not have qualified for automatic derivative citizenship as a minor.
Another odd detail: the man Omar married on that application describes himself as gay.
The image of this document has been publicly available since 2016. The Obama administration found the allegations serious enough to open a probe. So why did it take a second Trump term, a DOJ raid, and conservative outlets to force the basic questions into the open — and why is the former president who started it all now pretending he didn't?
