WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • AJ Kern says federal searches found no naturalization record for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s late father under multiple name variations.
  • A formal Department of Homeland Security certificate dated September 6, 2023, documented searches of the Central Index System and related databases.
  • Omar’s congressional biography says she arrived in the United States in 1995 and became a naturalized citizen in 2000 at age 17.
  • Kern argues that Omar could not have received derivative citizenship through her father if he never naturalized.

Former Minnesota congressional candidate AJ Kern says she possesses a Department of Homeland Security certificate showing that federal databases contain no naturalization record for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed. The father is also referenced through name variations including Nur Said Elmi Mohamed.

Kern discussed the documents during an interview with Newsmax host Rob Finnerty. She said she obtained the Certificate of Nonexistence of Record after investigating the immigration history of Omar’s father.

Kern said, “I requested his naturalization records, and I did receive a response from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that they did a thorough search of their records using all variations of her father’s name, and he’s not in the database.”

“I have a certificate of nonexistence of record from the Department of Homeland Security,” Kern said. “I have both of those documents.”

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Kern added, “I’ve been very open about having them, and I don’t think that the government just, you know, issues those without having done the thorough search. And they are signed.”

“And given that there’s no naturalization records for him, then it makes her whole issue of her age irrelevant,” Kern said. Her argument centers on whether Omar could have received derivative citizenship through her father if he had not become a naturalized citizen.

According to the New York Post, Kern challenged Omar in the 2022 Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th District. Kern requested records concerning Omar’s deceased father, who died in 2020, after determining that she could not access Omar’s immigration files because Omar is living.

Kern received a response from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services dated around June 20, 2023. That response stated that officials had conducted a thorough search of databases using the various versions of Mohamed’s name and found no matching index reference.

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She later obtained the formal Department of Homeland Security Certificate of Nonexistence of Record. The certificate was dated September 6, 2023, and signed by Douglas C. Marr of the National Records Center’s Immigration Information Integrity Branch.

The certificate documented what it described as a diligent search of government systems, including the Central Index System and related databases. According to the document, that search produced no record.

The official Biographical Directory of the United States Congress states that Omar was born on October 4, 1982, in Mogadishu, Somalia. It says she fled Somalia with her family during the Somali civil war.

According to the congressional biography, Omar spent several years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States in 1995. The biography states that she became a naturalized American citizen in 2000 at age 17.

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Kern has questioned both the timing of Omar’s naturalization and the absence of a naturalization record for Omar’s father. Her published investigation argues that Omar could not have acquired derivative citizenship through Mohamed’s naturalization if Mohamed never naturalized.

That is the central question Kern wants federal officials to address. Her documents, as described, concern searches for records associated with Mohamed and the listed variations of his name.

Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant on October 12, 2026, at a Washington, D.C., area residence. The search was described as part of a probe focused on documents completed by Omar’s late father.

Officials have examined possible false statements, age discrepancies, and other issues that could support denaturalization proceedings if proven. Those issues remain contingent on proof.

Legal observers, including Jonathan Turley, have noted that immigration laws treat material misrepresentations during the naturalization process seriously. They have also said that derivative citizenship claims depend upon the validity of the parent’s status, making Kern’s certificate a potentially consequential piece of the broader dispute.

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