Monday, September 14, 2026
Homan confirms ‘criminal’ investigation involving Ilhan Omar
White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed on “The Sunday Briefing” that the Department of Homeland Security is looking into allegations involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., but would not disclose details about what he described as an “ongoing criminal investigation.”
Pressed on whether the federal government has evidence that Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud, Homan declined to comment.
“I know things are going on, but I can’t give specifics of what’s happening,” Homan said.
“If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law. So, I’ll leave it at that. We’ll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation.”
When subsequently asked directly whether he was confirming an investigation involving Omar, Homan replied, “I’m confirming that ICE is, yeah — look, I said months ago that there’s something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at.”
Omar has long been dogged by allegations that she married a man that critics allege is her brother as part of an immigration scheme. Omar has repeatedly denied the allegation, and the claim has not been proven in public records. In December, she dismissed the claims as “bigoted lies,” writing on social media that Trump was obsessed with her.
Homan’s comments follow Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s appearance on a podcast, during which he said, “Something’s going to happen. … We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States. We know he now lives in London.
“There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. … If we can prove it, that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we will deport you.”
Homan did not disclose any information about possible evidence or charges.
Vice President JD Vance said in May that the Justice Department was looking into whether Omar committed immigration fraud.
“You read the things about Ilhan Omar … who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance said then. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law.”
The vice president’s comments follow his own podcast interview in March, during which he told conservative commentator Benny Johnson he had spoken with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller about potential legal action against Omar.
“We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said at the time.
There is a denaturalization process for cases of proven immigration fraud, Homan said, characterizing it as “very serious.”
“If someone lies through that process to becoming a citizen, and we can prove they, in fact, lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them. We’ve done it before many times over the last 40 years I’ve been around, so it’s a process,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for comment.
Left’s push to delay deporting illegal-migrant criminals imposes huge costs on taxpayers
Much of today’s deportation debate centers on the question of who should count as “criminals” to be immediately sent back to their home countries — with anti-deportation advocates ignoring the huge cost of delay.
Consider a case from Loudoun County, Va., where police arrested Isaac Melendez-Carranza for allegedly selling fentanyl to two students at Park View HS who then OD’d; only Narcan saved their lives.
As in high-profile cases from Laken Riley to Sheridan Gorman, this crime is itself an added cost: Melendez-Carranza entered the country illegally and a judge ordered him deported in July 2024 — yet (Biden-era) federal immigration authorities encountered him one month later and let him remain.
And many Democrats, immigration advocates and media voices insist it’d be wrong to deport him now, based merely on an arrest or pending charges.
The Department of Homeland Security claims that 70% of illegal aliens have been convicted or charged with a crime (beyond the immigration violation); organizations such as the Cato Institute and Brennan Center, focusing instead on criminal convictions in this country, claim that only about 35% of illegals should count as criminals.
“A charge is not a conviction,” argues Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Brennan’s senior director for justice; “people are innocent until proven guilty” — again, ignoring the fact that we’re talking about people who’ve already violated US immigration law.
These advocates’ counts virtually always also exclude illegal immigrants’ criminal histories from their home countries — though, as DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin notes, “Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.”
Now consider the costs of prosecution: Even if Melendez-Carranza accepts a plea bargain, prosecuting such a fentanyl-distribution felony typically runs Virginia taxpayers $50,000 to $100,000 or more — and if he fights the charge and forces a full trial, the trial and jail costs alone could reach $150,000.
Add in the much larger cost of imprisonment after conviction (since Democrat-run Virginia will almost certainly have Melendez-Carranza serve out his sentence here rather than turning him over to ICE immediately after conviction for deportation): A contested trial leading to a substantial prison term could push taxpayers’ total bill to $600,000 or more.
Even the less expensive route isn’t cheap: A plea bargain for a relatively short sentence — say, time served plus a year or two years behind bars — can still run the public $150,000.
And, while being charged with a crime doesn’t guarantee a conviction, conviction is overwhelmingly the outcome.
The most recent comprehensive Bureau of Justice Statistics report, covering FY 2023, shows convictions for about nine out of every 10 federal defendants whose cases were adjudicated (which is virtually all cases where criminals are charged with a crime); the 2025 data for Virginia courts are virtually identical.
Why should taxpayers have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars prosecuting and incarcerating someone already in the country illegally, rather than deporting him?
More serious charges mean even greater expenses: The total trial, jail and prison costs for a rapist can easily run to $1.8 million or more; for a murderer, to well over $3 million.
What if the government had had to prosecute and convict all 248,000 illegal aliens deported in the second Trump term based on only arrests — even if only for a drug offense — before it could deport them?
At a minimum expense of $150,000 per case, prosecuting all 248,000 would run taxpayers $37.2 billion. At $600,000 or more per case, the total would exceed $148.8 billion.
The liberal and libertarian advocates offer no good justification for forcing taxpayers to spend such vast sums — again, at least hundreds of thousands of dollars per illegal immigrant — when the government already has legal authority to deport every one of them.
John R. Lott Jr., the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, served as the senior advisor for research and statistics in the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Legal Policy in the US Department of Justice in 2020-’21.
White House agrees to new ethics language in crypto bill
The White House has agreed to new ethics language in the Clarity Act ahead of a key vote on the cryptocurrency regulation bill in the Senate on Tuesday.
The provision, which would bar public officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets, could be enforced by both state attorneys general and the Department of Justice (DOJ) under updated language released by Senate Republicans late Sunday.
This was a key demand from Democrats, whose support will be needed to clear Tuesday’s procedural vote on the Senate floor.
“After a year of intense daily bipartisan negotiations, this bill is ready,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said in a statement.
It’s unclear whether the updated ethics provision will be enough to win over key Democrats. A Senate GOP aide said Sunday that President Trump agreed to about 80 percent of what was requested.
Democrats have long sought to include an ethics provision in the Clarity Act in the face of concerns about Trump and his family’s involvement in the crypto industry.
The White House agreed to ethics language in late July, but Democrats pushed back on the decision to put the DOJ in charge of enforcement.
“A no vote on Tuesday means opposing real ethics reforms on politicians’ personal investments, handing American leadership in digital assets to our foreign competitors, and leaving Americans with zero protections in the digital asset markets,” Lummis added. “Democrats got what they wanted; now they need to take yes for an answer.”
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/6087405-white-house-accepts-clarity-act-ethics/
'IRGC media denies its forces trapped in Lebanon Ali al-Taher tunnels'
Iranian state media affiliated with the IRGC denied reports that members of the force had been trapped in tunnels in the Ali al-Taher area of southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes.
It said only 48 Hezbollah forces had been stationed in the two tunnels targeted by Israel and that eight of them were killed.
Iran protests Austria revoking nuclear chief’s visa for IAEA meeting
Iran protested Vienna’s decision to revoke the visa of its nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami, preventing him from attending the IAEA General Conference in the Austrian capital.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, called the visa cancellation “a clear sign of politicization” and said it seriously violated Iran’s rights as a member of the UN nuclear watchdog.
He urged Austria, the host country, to immediately reverse the restriction and provide guarantees against similar cases in the future.
Vance says US in direct talks with Houthis amid Saudi escalation
US Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Washington has been holding direct talks with Yemen’s Houthis as the Iran-aligned group escalates attacks on Saudi Arabia and expands its control near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
“We’ve also been engaged in direct conversations with the Houthis themselves,” Vance told reporters, adding that the administration was also in contact with Saudi Arabia and other countries affected by the fighting.
“We actually feel like we are on top of the situation,” he said. “It’s a very fluid and dynamic thing, but we’re going to keep on monitoring it and making sure that Americans’ best interests are represented.”
The remarks come after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sought direct US military help against the Houthis last week. President Donald Trump declined to authorize US strikes, while Washington offered Riyadh intelligence sharing and targeting support.