Noem ‘confident Ilhan Omar will finally be held accountable’

Kristi Noem, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said she was assured that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) would be “held accountable” if the lawmaker is found to have committed immigration fraud after federal agents raided her home Monday.

Noem, whom President Trump fired in March after a tumultuous stint leading the department, said in a Thursday interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson that she was confident Omar “will finally be held accountable for the crimes that she’s committed.”

Trump and other prominent Republican figures have levied numerous allegations against Omar over her immigration status, accusing the Somali native of marrying her brother in order to obtain U.S. citizenship — which she has denied.

When pressed about which immigration crimes she believes Omar may have committed, the former Homeland Security chief pointed to the agency’s practice of examining all familial ties to any applicant seeking citizenship.

“If you go back and find that anything could be wrong or misrepresented, that’s when it voids or cancels out their citizenship,” Noem said.

Omar and the former Homeland Security secretary have repeatedly clashed over federal immigration operations in Minnesota. Noem was in charge of the department at the height of several prominent immigration enforcement operations and subsequent protests, and during the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The lawmaker accused Noem of spreading “lies and propaganda” about ICE arrests in Minnesota, ripping the then-secretary’s claims that immigration enforcement officers were primarily targeting migrants without legal status who had harmed children.

The Trump administration last year announced it would launch a criminal investigation into Omar for alleged immigration fraud. Homeland Security Investigations agents raided the lawmaker’s Washington, D.C., home on Monday.

The Minnesota Democrat subsequently released a fundraising email focused on the investigation, calling for supporters to “Stand with Ilhan Omar.”

“Donald Trump and DHS have opened a baseless, partisan investigation into Ilhan Omar, and she needs us by her side as they escalate their attacks,” the email reads.

“Chip in whatever you can to make sure Ilhan can beat Trump and keep fighting for our progressive values in Congress.”