President Joe Biden’s record on border security is so bad that his own party members regard it as toxic. Even far-left candidates such as James Talarico call themselves “border security” Democrats so as to distance themselves, if possible, from the abject failure of their past leader.
But as bad as Biden’s policies were at the southern border, where Democratic negligence was most obvious, the ex-president’s refusal to enforce the law inside the country was equally reckless. The extent of the damage done was documented by a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report released this week.
The foreign-born population of the United States grew by a record 8.3 million during the Biden administration, pushing its share of the country’s population to a record 15.8%. Not all of this growth was from illegal immigration, but the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the illegal population alone grew by 5.6 million. It includes not only those who crossed the southern border illegally but also others admitted legally on temporary visas who did not leave after their authorization expired.
Each year, the State Department issues 10 million nonimmigrant visas. These include B-1 and B-2 visas for tourism and business, F-1s for students, H-2As for agricultural workers, H-1Bs for highly skilled workers, and other categories. Such visas permit temporary travel to the United States. Most people leave before their visas expire rather than becoming permanent additions to the foreign-born population.
But some 500,000 a year stay, becoming illegal immigrants just as those who crossed the border without authorization did. The Immigration and Nationality Act says “any alien who was admitted as a non-immigrant and who has failed to maintain the non-immigrant status in which the alien was admitted… is deportable.” DHS reported almost 2 million suspected overstays during fiscal years 2021 to 2024, among non-immigrants admitted through air and sea ports.
According to the inspector general, ICE received more than 3.1 million leads concerning suspected overstays or other violations of admission terms during Biden’s presidency, from 2021 to 2024. Of those, it arrested only eight. Such scandalous non-enforcement cannot be anything other than a policy decision to ignore the requirements of the law.
The report attributes the limited enforcement to a Sept. 30, 2021, memorandum written by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that directed ICE to focus its resources on threats to “national security, public safety, and border security.”
Mayorkas made clear that a criminal conviction alone was insufficient to establish that an illegal immigrant posed a current public safety threat. His memo specifically rejected automatically treating domestic violence as grounds for apprehension and removal. Agents were directed to weigh mitigating factors, including how long offenders had lived in the United States and the effects of deportation on their families. Under that policy, even serious criminal conduct did not guarantee that immigration authorities would attempt removal.
Democrats claim they have learned the lessons of Biden’s immigration failures and will do all they can to secure the border if elected back to power. This is doubtful, to say the least.
Democrats still oppose detaining migrants arrested for illegally crossing the border and returning them to Mexico. There is only one other policy option when Border Patrol arrests someone illegally crossing the border, and that is to release them into the United States. That was Biden’s policy, and it was a disaster. Democrats have not articulated any alternative.
But let’s assume that Democrats do find some magic new way of dealing with illegal border crossers other than detention or return to Mexico. What about the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who enter legally but then illegally overstay their visas? Democrats have no answer for what to do about these people either, other than to grant them citizenship, which would be a clear invitation for millions more to stay.
In other words, the Democrats are still bent on sacrificing United States sovereignty and letting foreigners decide whether they wish to live in the United States rather than leaving the decision where it should be: with the citizens of this country, whose will is expressed through federal laws.
Securing the border is only part of enforcing immigration law. A country that admits visitors temporarily must ensure they leave. Until Democrats commit to enforcing that obligation, their promises of border security will be empty. Americans deserve immigration laws that mean what they say, and the only way that happens is through enforcement.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar investigated in DC, Minnesota over inflating net worth, immigration fraud: sources
Rep. Ilhan Omar is the target of at least two federal investigations related to possible immigration fraud and inflation of her net worth by tens of millions of dollars in House disclosure forms, according to sources familiar with the probes and an administration official.
DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed Tuesday on Fox News’ “America Reports” that “there are several investigations going on” related to the Minnesota Democrat, adding that potential civil or criminal immigration violations as well as Omar’s claim of being worth up to $30 million were also under scrutiny.
Sources familiar with the cases disclosed that the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office was leading the probe into alleged immigration fraud, possibly involving false statements about Omar’s birth date, while Pirro’s office in DC was taking on the inquiry into the finances of Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett.
Concealing material facts or willfully misrepresenting information on immigration papers could lead to the congresswoman’s denaturalization, one source said. It’s unclear whether those alleged crimes occurred on paperwork originally compiled by her father or on subsequent forms such as a passport renewal.
Federal investigators are also looking at whether Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, lied about his service in the Somalian military under the Marxist dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, The Washington Post reported.
The Omar family emigrated first to Kenya during the bloody civil war that led to Barre’s toppling. They eventually arrived in the US in 1995. Omar’s father died of complications due to COVID-19 in 2020.
Criminal denaturalizations have a 10-year statute of limitations, while civil denaturalizations aren’t subject to such limitations.
“A conviction for knowingly procuring naturalization unlawfully requires revocation of citizenship,” said Todd Spodek, a federal criminal defense lawyer. “But the Supreme Court has made clear that not every false statement is enough; the government generally must show the lie actually mattered to obtaining citizenship.
“The Constitution requires seven years of citizenship to serve in the House. Denaturalization can operate retroactively, but how that would affect an already-seated member of Congress is largely untested,” Spodek added. “A criminal conviction alone does not automatically remove a member from office.”
Omar has already been investigated twice by a House watchdog, the Office of Congressional Conduct, for omitting information from financial forms, but the allegations were dismissed both times.
In 2024, she astoundingly claimed that her and Mynett’s joint assets were valued between $5 million and $30 million, only to file disclosures one year later, claiming between $20,000 and $125,000.
The previously high-valued assets were largely attributable to income reported from Mynett’s wine and venture capital businesses, which recorded a meager $200 to $1,000 last year.
…
In response to other accusations about immigration fraud allegedly involving one of her brothers, Omar’s campaign told the Associated Press in 2018 that she didn’t have a birth certificate due to her family’s displacement by the long-running Somalia civil war.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents executed a search warrant Monday on Omar’s DC bungalow and exited the home carrying boxes of apparent evidence that will be used for the immigration-related probe.
“They got a warrant signed by a federal judge,” Pirro said in defending the raid on the “Squad” Democrat’s residence.
“There’s no question that that judge would not have signed that warrant unless there was probable cause. And probably more than that, given the individual who was involved and given the fact that we’re in the nation’s capital — with judges in the nation’s capital,” she added.
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Legal Expert Jonathan Turley Says Ilhan Omar Could Be in Line for Denaturalization: ‘Immigration Laws Are Very Clear’
Legal expert Jonathan Turley said that laws surrounding immigration fraud mean that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota could lose her citizenship if she’s found to have committed fraud.
Homeland Security Investigations raided Omar’s Washington-area home on Monday. The raid was part of what Fox News called a “criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child.”
A Department of Justice statement added little other than saying the raid was “part of an ongoing federal investigation,” which is “criminal” in nature.
“This investigation began under the Biden administration,” Turley noted in a video posted to X, saying that there have long been questions surrounding Omar’s history.
When asked which of the various controversies surrounding Omar should be considered to have precedence, Turley replied. “I think that we should focus on the immigration side of the investigation because that’s the one that has reached the point of an actual search of her residence.”
“I think that these family members very likely are related to the immigration side of this,” he said.
“The immigration laws are very clear. When you’re accused of illegally procuring citizenship or naturalization, it is not a defense that, ‘I was innocent in all of this,’” he said.
“The U.S. government’s position has always been that if you have information there that is untrue, where you would not have been made a citizen, then you can be denaturalized,” he said, noting that the standard of proof for denaturalization is high.
“There’s also question as to the stated age of Representative Omar, which allowed her to basically piggyback on the process of her father, instead of having to file a separate effort, filing for naturalization,” he said.
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Networks Are Still Seething Over Ilhan Omar Raid, Cast Doubt on Its Merits
On their flagship morning newscasts, ABC fixed on Tuesday a major issue (party ID) that befell their Monday night coverage of the federal raid on far-left Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) D.C. home, but was joined by CBS and NBC in continuing to express disgust at the idea Omar would be raided for anything other than political retribution by the Trump administration.
CBS Mornings, like its evening counterpart, still refused to explicitly state that Ilhan Omar is a Democrat. In addition, it still minimized the possibility that she did anything criminal.
Here was the setup from featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers:
Sticking with politics now, Democrats say it was politics that played a role in a raid on a congresswoman’s home in Washington. Sources tell CBS News it was tied to a federal investigation into how Ilhan Omar and her family came to the U.S. decades ago. Nicole Sganga has more on the raid that Omar called “political intimidation” by the Trump administration.
Homeland Security correspondent Nicole Sganga also implied the raid was a show, since she led with “Trump calling out Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar after Homeland Security investigators seized boxes of evidence from her Washington, D.C. home Monday” even though “sources tell CBS News the raid was part of a years-long probe involving immigration paperwork completed by her late father when she was a child.”
She further fretted (click “expand”):
SGANGA: Trump has repeatedly attacked the Democratic lawmaker and questioned her citizenship…Omar, a U.S. citizen and first Somali-American in Congress, called the search “an attempt to target political enemies,” adding, “I will not be silenced.” And Democratic leaders said it raises questions about, “continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.” Trump told reporters he’s not involved in the investigation, but Attorney General Todd Blanche was aware of the search, according to sources, and the timing is noteworthy. Omar’s up for reelection in just three weeks. Typically, the Justice Department doesn’t pursue members of Congress who are candidates within 60 days of an election.
TOM DUPREE: Historically, the Justice Department will basically put these things on pause. They’ll put them on hold as the election approaches because they don’t want to be seen as possibly interfering with an upcoming election.
ABC’s Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos implied it had no actual judicial merit in a tease: “Three weeks until the final votes. President Trump tries to save a Senate seat in a state he won three times, attacking immigrant and Muslim candidates, hours after federal agents searched the home of Representative Ilhan Omar.”
Because apparently ABC is fine with his amateurish politicking and snide asides, co-host and former NFL player Michael Strahan also tied the Omar raid to Monday’s Trump rally in Ohio: “The President attacked Representative Ilhan Omar from the stump hours after federal agents searched her home in a pre-dawn raid. The Minnesota congresswoman is calling it an act of political intimidation.”
D.C.-based correspondent Jay O’Brien continued on that theme, noting “Omar is a longtime political foe of President Trump’s, and there are mounting questions this morning about why the DOJ broke with its tradition and executed that search on her home so close to Election Day.”
O’Brien fretted “the extraordinary search” was carried out at the home of “someone President Trump has attacked for years” and demanded on Truth Social “just months ago” be investigated and jailed.
Like those at CBS and NBC, ABC’s O’Brien also noted the Justice Department has had “a long-standing, unwritten rule avoiding taking public steps in politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election,” and parroted the condemnations from the “progressive Democrat” and her allies (click “expand”):
O’BRIEN: The DOJ has a long-standing, unwritten rule avoiding taking public steps in politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election. But three weeks from the midterms, Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant authorized by a judge at Omar’s Washington, D.C., area home Monday. Federal investigators were here since the early hours of the morning, parking a long line of police cars and evidence van, pulling boxes out of the congresswoman’s home.
FORMER DEPUTY AG DONALD AYER: You really have to wonder, why would they do this now? If they want to investigate it, why didn’t they do it two months ago? Why didn’t they do it six months ago? Or why don’t they wait until after the election? But here we are, right before the election, and they’re conducting a search.
O’BRIEN: The Department of Justice saying the search is tied to an ongoing criminal investigation. Sources tell ABC News the investigation relates to Omar’s immigration paperwork. The progressive Democrat came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee in 1995. She became a citizen in 2000 at age 17. In a statement, Omar calling it all “political intimidation” and “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” adding, “I will not be silenced.” Fellow Democrats also rallying to Omar’s side this morning. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democratic leaders in the House calling the search a “weaponization of the federal government against the President’s political adversaries[.]”
While it remained the lone network to mention the basic fact of Omar’s party affiliation on both newscasts, NBC’s Today had a far worse and whiny report than the more substance-based Nightly News missive.
“The Justice Department saying it is part of an ongoing criminal investigation, but Omar and her supporters are accusing the Trump administration of a blatant abuse of power ahead of the midterm elections,” said co-host Craig Melvin.
Longtime correspondent Kelly O’Donnell dismissed outright the raid’s legitimacy because “[t]his is about timing and the intersection of this political season and the Trump administration’s use of its power” versus “a progressive Democratic congresswoman, who has been both a critic of the President and also a frequent target of President Trump’s fury.”
The report from the Briefing Room Karen continued by framing it entirely around past comments Trump (and Vice President JD Vance) have made about Omar, with only lip service to the consideration she may have broken the law (click “expand”):
O’DONNELL: This morning, new fallout over Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar. President Trump lashing out at the progressive Democrat in Ohio, hours after Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant at Omar’s Washington, D.C., home. The Justice Department calling it part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
TRUMP: And that Ilhan, someone was asking me, I don’t know what they’re doing with her, but I can tell you this, she’s a disaster.
O’DONNELL: Omar’s supporters gathering in Minnesota to defend the four-term congresswoman and to accuse the administration of abusing its power.
OMAR SUPPORTER: And what they have done today to Ilhan Omar is violent, authoritarian attack on a leader.
O’DONNELL: A source familiar with the investigation said this probe has been underway for a period of years, examining potential immigration fraud. The search warrant remains under seal, and no charges have been filed.
TRUMP: I think she’s a terrible person, but that’s really up to the DOJ.
O’DONNELL: Omar was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen at 17. In March, Vice President Vance accused the congresswoman of fraud.
VANCE [on The Benny Show, 03/28/26]: We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America.
O’DONNELL: Her office said the congresswoman has done nothing wrong. Omar posting: “make no mistake: This is an attempt to target political enemies,” adding, “I will not be silenced.” For years, tensions have flared publicly between the President and the congresswoman.
TRUMP [on 05/01/26]: Ilhan Omar — [CROWD BOOS] — you ever hear of her?
OMAR [on 12/03/25]: What is weird to me just how creepy he’s been obsessed with me and the Somali community.
O’DONNELL: The Department of Justice has had a policy, not a formal rule, to avoid what it calls overt acts or investigative steps against a candidate within 60 days of an election, and doing so has required layers of approval. Congresswoman Omar is on the ballot for re-election in 21 days. The DOJ has not publicly said that she is the subject of this investigation.
To see the relevant transcripts from October 13, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
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