Homan says Omar could lose citizenship if fraud proven; lawyers fight search

What DHS has said: Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told "The Charlie Kirk Show" late last week that multiple warrants were served the same day as the Omar search, that a judge signed off, and that "we expect to be able to take the case to a grand jury." He said the administration would not have moved forward "unless we knew that it couldn't be politically driven." Using a hypothetical he did not tie to Omar's family, Mullin suggested that coordinated immigration fraud could be charged as a racketeering (RICO) conspiracy. CBS News noted it is unusual for officials to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation in public. President Trump said Monday, "I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ."

The judge's limits: People familiar with the case told CNN and CBS News that Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh pressed prosecutors to add a process for screening seized records before approving the warrant. The rule comes from a 2007 D.C. Circuit ruling in the Rayburn House Office Building case, which bars the executive branch from reviewing a sitting lawmaker's seized material before the member can flag legislative work protected by the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause. CBS reported prosecutors first argued the rule should not apply because the search was at her home, not her congressional office.

What the evidence shows: Mullin suggested statutes of limitations generally would not apply to such a racketeering case. As CBS News noted, criminal RICO prosecutions are generally subject to a five-year limit, though prosecutors can sometimes fold older acts into a timely case about an ongoing enterprise, and the Supreme Court held in Grunewald v. United States (1957) that a conspiracy cannot be stretched indefinitely by a later cover-up.

What losing citizenship would take: Denaturalization is not automatic. Under federal law (8 U.S.C. § 1451), the government must go to federal court and show that citizenship was "illegally procured" or obtained "by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation." In Maslenjak v. United States (2017), the Supreme Court held that to convict someone of the related naturalization-fraud crime, prosecutors must prove the illegal act played a role in getting citizenship.

How outlets framed it: Fox News led with Homan's warning that Omar "faces denaturalization, deportation over fraud claims." CBS News led with her attorneys' accusation that DOJ violated the judge's orders, and The Guardian with their claim that the search was "neither justified nor lawful." The AP and The Hill led with the property demand and Homan's "strong case" remark, respectively.

Timeline: Oct. 12, HSI agents search Omar's D.C.-area home and DOJ confirms a court-authorized warrant. Oct. 14, CNN reports the magistrate judge limited how DOJ could access her records. Oct. 16, her lawyers send their letter, and DOJ disputes it. Late last week, Mullin calls it a "strong case" on a podcast. Oct. 17, Homan says denaturalization could follow if fraud is proven.

What we don't know yet: No charges, target letter or court filing describing the evidence has been made public. It is not clear whether DOJ has begun reviewing the seized material, whether Omar's lawyers will go to court over the alleged violations, or what the other warrants Mullin mentioned covered. Reporting that the probe centers on childhood immigration forms filled out by Omar's late father rests on unnamed sources.

Updated Oct. 18, 2026, with Tom Homan's Fox News remarks, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin's podcast comments, the Oct. 16 letter from Omar's lawyers and DOJ's response. The letter was first reported in The Wall Street Journal and reviewed by the AP and CBS News; US Brief has not seen it. Neither Homan nor Mullin has described the evidence publicly, and Omar has not been charged. Reporting that the probe concerns childhood immigration paperwork filled out by her late father, the grand jury subpoenas to relatives and the judge's limits on the warrant comes from people familiar with the case who spoke to CBS News, CNN and Fox News without being named. Sourcing spans Fox News (right-leaning), CBS News and The Guardian (left-leaning), and AP and The Hill.