By Gloria Ogbonna
New York Times reporters appeared visibly uncomfortable and quick to push back during a tense exchange with President Donald Trump after he made explosive claims about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), alleging that she married her brother and should be deported from the United States.
According to a transcript released Sunday from a lengthy, two-hour interview session, Trump did not mince words when discussing the Minnesota congresswoman. He told Times reporters that Omar “should be immediately thrown out of Congress and sent back to her, her country, from where she’s always complaining about.”
Trump then doubled down on long-circulating allegations about Omar’s personal history, adding, “She married her brother,” a reference to claims that Omar entered into a fraudulent marriage to help a relative immigrate to the United States.
The remarks prompted immediate resistance from the reporters present. White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs responded by saying the claim “lacks evidence,” while David E. Sanger, the New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent, added bluntly, “Not proven.”
The exchange highlighted the sharp divide between Trump’s assertions and the newspaper’s position, with neither side offering new documentation or investigative findings to definitively resolve the controversy.
Despite years of public debate, questions surrounding Omar’s second marriage, her birth year, and aspects of her immigration and citizenship history remain politically charged and unresolved in the public sphere.
Competing claims have also surfaced over time regarding her family background, including allegations related to her father’s role during the civil war in northern Somalia—claims that have likewise never been conclusively settled.
In 2019, the New York Times published an article outlining Omar’s defenses against these allegations, portraying them as politically motivated attacks.
The paper later reported in 2020 that Omar’s father “was a teacher in Somalia” and that Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at the age of 17. Those reports have been repeatedly cited by her defenders as evidence that accusations against her lack factual grounding.
However, the broader issue of immigration and refugee fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community has resurfaced with renewed intensity under the Trump administration. Federal officials are now reviewing refugee and immigration records for signs of widespread fraud, particularly involving family reunification claims.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem addressed the issue in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, suggesting that immigration fraud has been a recurring factor in Minnesota-based scandals.
“Many of the times we’ve dug into [Minnesota fraud] and it’s [enabled by] immigration fraud within Somali families and clans,” Noem said. She accused the Biden administration of facilitating systemic abuse, adding, “They came into this country lying on their documents why they could come and why they were eligible to use our programs.
Joe Biden facilitated this all, and as we uncover more of this criminal activity, we’re going to continue to surge resources to make sure that this abuse of government funds and government power no longer continues in Minnesota.”
Federal authorities have pursued similar cases in the past. In 2017, the Department of Justice moved to revoke the citizenship of four Somali nationals accused of manipulating family relationships to qualify for immigration benefits.
One of the most detailed cases involved Fosia Abdi Adan, a Somali native who obtained a diversity visa in 2001 and allegedly used false identities and fabricated family ties to secure visas for individuals who were not legally eligible.
According to DOJ filings, Adan falsely claimed to be married to a man using a fictitious identity and asserted that they had children together. These claims were allegedly maintained throughout her naturalization process, despite being untrue.
Federal prosecutors argued that Adan was never lawfully admitted as a permanent resident because her actions constituted alien smuggling under the Immigration and Nationality Act, making her ineligible for U.S. citizenship from the outset.
Concerns about fraud within the refugee family reunification system grew so severe that U.S. officials suspended the program in 2008.
A 2010 report by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed that the Priority 3 (P-3) resettlement category had been closed after investigators found that many applicants—particularly from Africa—were not biologically related to the family members they claimed.
“The fraud rate among Somali refugees was reported to be as high as 90 percent,” the report stated, underscoring the scale of the problem at the time.
Although anti-fraud measures were later relaxed under the Obama administration in 2012, critics argue that those decisions paved the way for the current investigations and political fallout now unfolding in Minnesota.
As Trump revives these issues on the national stage, the clash with the New York Times reflects a broader struggle over immigration enforcement, media credibility, and unresolved questions surrounding one of Congress’s most controversial figures.
Source Breitbrat
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