Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) weighed in on President Donald Trump’s resurrection of the claim that Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) married her brother by presenting a trio of state and federal laws she would have violated if the allegation proved accurate.
“If this is true, then Omar faces criminal liability under three different statutes,” the senator wrote on X responding to a White House post Friday, “Yes (Omar) married her brother.”
The original marriage claim, which has been around since Omar ran for state office in 2016, is that the Somalian-born lawmaker married her brother so he could gain U.S. citizenship.
Cruz cited a federal marriage fraud statute that declares that it is a felony to knowingly enter into a marriage to evade immigration laws, the violation of which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and deportation.
The Senator, a former Texas attorney general, also noted that marriage to her brother would be in violation of Minnesota’s state incest law, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Cruz also stated that Omar could be liable for tax fraud, specifically if joint tax returns were filed while she was not legally married.
The President brought up the claim in a rally in Pennsylvania earlier in the week, telling the crowd: “If I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I’d last for about two hours or something less than that? She married her brother to get in. Therefore, she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out.”
The claim continued with the post from an official White House account that showed what purported to be a section of Omar’s marriage license application to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the implication being that the man was her second husband.
According to Fox News:
Omar was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. in 1995 after her family was granted asylum. She became a citizen in 2000. Omar, who is Muslim, has been married legally three times, first in a religious marriage to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002, then to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 before later divorcing and legally marrying Hirsi. In 2020, she married political aide Tim Mynett.
According to a New York Times fact check of the claim in 2019, state records showed that in 2009, “Omar legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who she said was a British citizen. They obtained a religious divorce in 2011, according to her timeline, and Mr. Elmi returned to England.”
Trump appeared to imply at the rally that Omar married her brother so she could gain U.S. citizenship.
However, the long-standing rumor, hatched by a blog in Minnesota, actually has been that she allegedly did it so her brother could gain legal entry into the U.S.
However, as far back as 2016, Omar has denied the allegation, saying in her initial lengthy statement on the matter, “Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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