Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are raising new questions about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past access to classified information as federal investigators examine her immigration history and the process through which she obtained U.S. citizenship.

Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home last month and seized her phone, computers, notebooks, and passport as part of an investigation into her immigration history.

Omar arrived in the United States from a Kenyan refugee camp in 1995 and became a naturalized citizen in 2000.

Investigators are reviewing that process, including longstanding allegations that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 in order to help him receive immigration benefits.

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Omar has denied those allegations.

Court filings connected to the investigation have listed her real name as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.

The federal probe has now prompted some of Omar’s congressional colleagues to focus on a separate issue: her previous access to sensitive and classified material while serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

DERSHOWITZ PREDICTS EXIT: Alan Dershowitz told NEWSMAX that Rep. Ilhan Omar could still face criminal prosecution over a previous marriage that federal investigators examined in 2016 and predicted she will ultimately have to resign or be barred from the House.

Dershowitz spoke on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" after a report said that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security found some evidence of fraud during a 2016 investigation into Omar's 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. "This is not a simple crime. This is a complex and potentially continuing crime," Dershowitz said. "So I think it's still an open, possible open case for criminal prosecution, for denaturalization, for deportation, all of those." — NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 30, 2026

Republicans on the committee argue that any questions surrounding Omar’s citizenship status could have implications for the classified information she previously reviewed as a member of Congress.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., has pointed out that lawmakers can receive classified briefings without going through the same background investigation required of military personnel and members of the intelligence community.

Mast said that “being elected is not the same thing as being vetted.”

He has called for members of Congress to obtain formal security clearances before receiving access to classified material.

Mast also noted that concerns about Omar’s access to sensitive information existed before the current investigation.

Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023 following controversy over anti-Semitic remarks.

Mast said the current federal investigation has intensified concerns about whether lawmakers should have access to classified information without undergoing a formal clearance process.

Other House Republicans are waiting for the results of the investigation before deciding what additional action may be appropriate.

Some have discussed the possibility of expelling Omar from Congress if investigators determine that she was not legally entitled to citizenship.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said lawmakers should act if evidence shows Omar is not a U.S. citizen.

If that happens, Van Duyne said, “lawmakers should do everything in our power to remove her from Congress and remove her from our country.”

The Constitution establishes a citizenship requirement for members of the House of Representatives.

Article I requires a person serving in the House to have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years.

That requirement has become a central issue in the discussion surrounding Omar because the federal investigation is examining the circumstances surrounding her naturalization.

Republicans are also questioning whether Omar shared information with Somali officials while serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, according to Washington, D.C., news sources.

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy says he removed Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee because she couldn’t be trusted to not share Top Secret information with Muslim Allies overseas

“I removed Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs, because you get top-secret information there, and sharing it, and her beliefs — I literally had to take that to the floor, and I remember having to get the members, work them to get the vote to actually remove, and now when you look in hindsight, I was correct” Can someone please explain to me if we can’t trust Muslims in Congress because of “their beliefs” then how is Abdul El-Sayed allowed to run for senate?? Why is any Muslim allowed to run for office?? No Muslim should be allowed to hold any office in America government — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 27, 2026

The material provided does not establish that Omar disclosed classified information, and the full scope of the federal investigation remains unclear.

However, committee members say any finding that Omar obtained citizenship through fraud would immediately raise questions about the classified information she previously had access to while serving on the panel.

Democrats have responded by rallying behind Omar.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., issued a letter signed by more than 100 House Democrats condemning the investigation.

Forty Democrats, most of them representing competitive districts, declined to add their names to the letter.

Nearly 40 House Democrats distanced themselves from a letter demanding the Trump administration end its federal probe into Rep. Ilhan Omar — including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, two of the party's most prominent figures.

The letter, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, drew roughly 175 signatures from House Democrats, more than two-thirds of the caucus. But the holdouts tell a story of their own: vulnerable Democrats in tight races like Reps. Henry Cuellar, Tom Suozzi, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Don Davis all did not sign. Omar is under federal investigation over allegations that she or her late father lied about her birth year on immigration paperwork when her family fled Somalia in the late 1990s. Federal agents executed a search warrant on her home on Oct. 12, seizing phones and notebooks. Omar has dismissed the probe as a political attack against one of Trump's staunchest critics. Story here: https://t.co/M9o8JBO9Yu — Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) October 29, 2026

The investigation therefore carries both legal and political implications as lawmakers await additional information from federal authorities.

For Republicans, the case has renewed a broader debate over congressional access to classified information and whether elected officials should be subjected to the same security-clearance process used elsewhere in the federal government.

For Omar, the immediate issue remains the federal investigation into her immigration history, naturalization, and the allegations involving her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.

She has denied wrongdoing.

Until investigators release additional findings, questions about her citizenship status, her previous role on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and her access to classified information remain unresolved.

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