DHS Sec: “They Maybe Married Somebody That Was Their Brother”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Dec. 7, 2025) — In an interview Thursday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham discussed with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan President Trump’s agenda to remove criminal illegal aliens from the country and, as recently announced, restrict the entry of aliens from an initial 19 “countries of concern.”

Later in the exchange, Noem confirmed that the list was to be expanded from to “at least 30” countries.

A DHS subsidiary, ICE was authorized by Congress in 2003 several months following the creation of DHS in late 2002.

Ingraham asked about “immigration sob stories of the day” she said are often used by Trump’s opponents to garner sympathy for those arrested by ICE and how the expressed views of some elected public office, “endangers” ICE and CBP agents.

Noem called the derogatory claims about ICE officers “blatant lies” and the catalyst of “violence against these law-enforcement officers.” “Some of these congressmen have been out there laying their hands on our law-enforcement officers,” she remarked.

“I think there has to be accountability here,” Ingraham replied. “If there’s not accountability, this will to continue to happen and lives will be lost; we’ve already had incidents where agents were shot at.”

On December 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum indicating individuals from 19 “high-risk countries” will be denied visas following the attack on two West Virginia National Guardsmen on November 26 resulting in the death of Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom. The memo states, in part:

Recently, the United States has seen what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people. An Afghan national, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, planned a terrorist attack in the United States on Election Day 2024. Tawhedi pled guilty in federal court to conspiring and attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).⁸ In another instance, an Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is suspected of planning and executing a terrorist attack in Washington, DC against two National Guard members,⁹ one who was killed and another who remains critically injured. USCIS plays an instrumental role in preventing terrorists from seeking safe haven in the United States and ensuring that USCIS’ screening and vetting and adjudications prioritize the safety of the American people and uphold all U.S. laws.

In light of identified concerns and the threat to the American people, USCIS has determined that a comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 is necessary. Lastly, USCIS may, when appropriate, extend this review and re-interview process to aliens who entered the United States outside of this timeframe.

Turning to Sheahan, Ingraham asked her about the alleged National Guard shooter, 29-year-old Afghani asylee Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who last week was charged with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and illegal possession of a firearm.

Through his attorney, Lakanwal entered a plea of “not guilty” on Tuesday.

Rakanwal, Sheahan said, is “just another example of somebody who hates America that comes to this country as a terrorist, and we shouldn’t be letting people into this country that hate this country. Americans pride themselves on their values and hard work and all of the things that we stand for as Americans every single day, and that’s what these people should — if you want to live in this country and come to this country, you should stand for those same things.”

Noem touched on the asylum process, which she said was misused when the U.S. allowed tens of thousands of Afghanis to enter the country without vetting following its precipitous exit from Afghanistan in late August 2021.

The list of countries whose citizens will not be issued visas by the United States for the time being will grow to “over 30,” she confirmed to Ingraham.

At 7:36 in the segment, Ingraham asked Noem if a significant number of Afghan “refugee” visas are “illegitimate.”

“It’s not specific to a specific country,” Noem responded. “We’re evaluating all of them, but in Minnesota, we have a large Somali population. The Somalian population — we’re seeing almost 50% fraud in their visa applications, which means they came into this country on false pretenses, false applications, they maybe married somebody that was their brother that they wanted to get into this country, and we’re going back and looking at all those…If it is fraud, Laura, we’re going to remove those people from our country,” Noem concluded her thoughts.

In the context of recently-alleged financial fraud of at least $1 billion on the part of the Somali community in Minneapolis, in statements last week Trump alleged Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN5), who was born in Somalia and whose associates may have taken part in the fraud scheme, “married her brother,” which has been reported to have occurred to facilitate his entry into the U.S. as well as obtain taxpayer-funded financial aid.

“It’s a fraud; she tries to deny it now, but she can’t really deny it; it happened,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Wednesday following an announcement to abandon the “café standard” gas-mileage restrictions on automobile manufacturers. “She shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman, and I’m sure people are looking at that, and she should be thrown the h*** out of our country,” he said.

In his statements pertaining to the issue, Trump has claimed Omar herself entered the U.S. illegally as a result of the union with her brother. According to her biography, Omar arrived in the U.S. with her father in 1995 as a Somalian refugee, having first been displaced to a refugee camp in Kenya.

The question of Omar’s alleged marriage to her brother arose from research published by Powerline; a thought-provoking video posted by former Omar DFL primary challenger AJ Kern followed by a key discovery supporting her contention that Omar could not have naturalized when she claimed; an exposé from The Blaze; a 2021 edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with the New York Post‘s Miranda Devine; and a Minnesota legislator who claimed, correctly, Omar had misused campaign funds and called for her then-Minnesota House security clearance to be pulled.

“Omar is a serial criminal,” Then-Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R), now a state senator representing District 20, wroted at the time. He, too, claimed Omar married her brother.

In response to Trump’s comments from the Oval Office Wednesday, Omar wrote on X, “I didn’t but is your President a pedophile?”

Some in the media continue to claim, without presenting evidence, the accusation that Omar married her brother is “debunked” and “lacks evidence.”

In 2016, Omar issued a rare statement about her then-first two marital experiences, admitting she “entered into a relationship with a  British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and married him legally in 2009.”

Elmi was reportedly a British national living in London at the time.

The father of her children and first partner, although not legally recorded, was Ahmed Hirsi, with a religious union reportedly taking place in 2002. Omar’s initial recorded marriage, to Elmi, was in 2009. After divorcing Elmi, Omar married Hirsi in 2018, at which time it was officially recorded.

In 2019 on what is reportedly her birthday, Omar filed for divorce from Hirsi and four months later married Democrat political consultant Tim Mynett, co-founder of the E Street Group, in Washington, D.C. She has since posted photos of Mynett and herself on Instagram, referring to him as her “husband.”

On August 28, 2016 she wrote of her “personal” life, referring to Elmi:

“Our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition. After that, he moved home to England. I have yet to legally divorce Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, but am in the process of doing so. Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive. Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi, we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together. Like all families, we have had our ups and downs but we are proud to have come through it together.”

In her 2021 interview with Carlson, Devine cited “Republican operatives” who “went to three continents” and reportedly obtained DNA showing Elmi is a match to Omar.

Individuals in the Minneapolis Somali community, too, have claimed Elmi is Omar’s brother, as well as an investigative report from Minnesota-based Alpha News based on photographic evidence which afterward reportedly vanished.