by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 30, 2026) — An “X” post from the verified account of the Republic of Somaliland reported by Fox News on Sunday appeared to respond to Vice President JD Vance’s interview Friday with podcaster Benny Johnson alleging Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN5) committed “immigration fraud” against the United States.
The tweet first appeared for this writer in a “trend” Sunday evening under the topic, “Ilhan Omar.”
Omar has denied the claim, which President Trump has also made in multiple public statements, particularly over the last several months as the scandal largely involving the Minneapolis Somali community in pilfering billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars has unfolded.
Fox’s article begins:
An African nation is calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to be extradited after Vice President JD Vance claimed during an interview that the lawmaker committed immigration fraud.
The Republic of Somaliland, a partially recognized state in the Horn of Africa, reacted in a post on X to the claim that Vance made in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
“Deportation? Please you’re just sending the princess back to her kingdom. Extradition? Say the word …” the post read.
When the Minneapolis fraud scandal erupted last fall, City Journal writers Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo reported that among other ill-begotten federal funds, Somali perpetrators funneled stolen money to Somalia, some of which found its way into the coffers of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
President Trump has claimed Omar is a “fake congresswoman” and said “she should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia.”
What and Who is the Republic of Somaliland?
The Republic of Somaliland X account prominently promoted Fox’s reporting on Sunday.
In a note below Somaliland’s post is a “Readers added context” note from X stating:
Somaliland’s official X government account did not say this. A pro-Somaliland “community” account did.
The post: x.com/RepOfSomalilan…
Official Somaliland accounts (with X’s government checkmark): x.com/somalilandmfa x.com/Presidencysl_
However, X appears to confirm the Republic of Somaliland issued the post dated March 28.
During preparation of this article Sunday evening, it was observed that Somaliland’s promotion of the Fox article was removed, leaving only a video clip from last summer of President Trump in which he stated of the potential for U.S. recognition of the Somaliland government, “We’re looking into that right now.”
The Republic of Somaliland is a breakaway section of Somalia located to Somalia’s west and north, with its capital in Hargeisa.
In May 1991, during Somalia’s civil war, the Republic of Somaliland declared itself independent and established its own government. Thus far, other than the nation of Israel, Somaliland’s sovereignty has not been recognized by the international community.
The Republic’s website contains a timeline of events leading to its declared independence, including condemnation of the Somalia regime led by Mohamed Siad (Siyad) Barre, who died several months prior to the Republic’s separation declaration.
An article dated July 27, 2025 at the Somaliland outlet Media Saxafi titled, “Barre’s Genocidal Shadow: How the UN and OAU Shielded a Regime and Condemned Somalilanders to Suffer” urges international bodies to recognize Somaliland despite what it claims is Barre’s “lingering influence of former officials from the Siyad Barre regime (Somalia’s military dictatorship)” on them.
A 2018 article by The Nation reported:
Between 1987 and 1989, the regime of Somali dictator Siad Barre massacred an estimated 200,000 members of the Isaaq tribe, the largest clan group in the northwest part of Somalia. At the time, some Isaaqs were fighting for independence, and to eliminate the threat, Barre tried to exterminate all of them. Experts now say there are more than 200 mass graves in Somaliland, most of them in the Valley of Death.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of what is often called the “Hargeisa Holocaust,” when about 90 percent of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of Isaaqs were killed. Yet there are no major plans to mark the horrors in Somaliland, or anywhere else for that matter. In the past, a few international organizations have recognized the bloodletting. A 2001 UN report investigating the attacks against the Isaaqs concluded that “the crime of genocide was conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somalia Government against the Isaaq people of northern Somalia.” But the events have been mostly forgotten; the boys playing soccer did not know the story behind the bones.
Wikipedia reports of the Isaaq Genocide, or Hargeisa Holocaust:
The Isaaq genocide (Somali: Xasuuqii beesha Isaaq; Arabic: الإبادة الجماعية لقبيلة إسحاق),[2][3] also known as the Hargeisa Holocaust,[3][4][5] was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic, under the dictatorship of Siad Barre, during the Somaliland War of Independence.[6][7] The number of civilian deaths in this massacre is estimated to be between 50,000 and 200,000, according to various sources,[8][9][10][3] The genocide, which escalated after the Somali National Movement (SNM)’s 1988 Northern Somalia offensive,[11][12] was marked by intense fighting that included SNM attacks on Ogaden refugee camps.[13] These refugees, who had arrived after the 1977 Ogaden War, were viewed by the SNM as a paramilitary force used by the state to colonize Isaaq land.[14] The genocide included the levelling and complete destruction of the largest and second largest cities in Somaliland, Hargeisa (which was 90 percent destroyed)[15] and Burao (70 percent destroyed), respectively.[16] In addition, up to 500,000[17][18] Somalilanders, primarily of the Isaaq clan,[19] fled across the border as refugees to Hart Sheik, Ethiopia, in what was described as “one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa,”[17] which resulted in the creation of the world’s then-largest refugee camp.[20] An additional 400,000 Somalilanders were internally displaced.[21][22][23] The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa becoming known as the ‘Dresden of Africa’.[17] The killings happened during the Somali Civil War and have been referred to as a “forgotten genocide”.
A Sham Marriage?
For years, allegations have been made that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Elmi, in 2009 in a scheme to admit him to the United States and qualify him for taxpayer-funded student aid, perhaps among other motives.
The claim has been repeated by President Trump in recent public remarks. Omar has denied the allegation and in turn accused Trump of “deflecting” from his “collapsing” support.
Somaliland and “Omar”
Omar opposes U.S. recognition of the Republic of Somaliland’s government.
The Republic of Somaliland has made striking claims appearing to support Vance’s position that Omar committed some type of fraud to enter the United States.
One of those is that Omar’s father was a military official in the Barre regime and obscured it when applying for entry to the U.S. by using a false surname.
That claim is supported by research performed between 2018 and 2019 by David Steinberg, then writing for PJ Media, Scott Johnson of the Minneapolis-based Powerline blog, and Alpha News‘s Preya Samsundar.
While the links posted at Powerline to Steinberg’s work at PJ Media are now broken, in his July 18, 2019 column on the subject, Johnson quoted Steinberg as having revealed an astounding trove of primary-sourced information on the “Omar” family, who he said actually bore the last name of “Elmi.”
In 1995, Ilhan entered the United States as a fraudulent member of the “Omar” family.
That is not her family. The Omar family is a second, unrelated family which was being granted asylum by the United States. The Omars allowed Ilhan, her genetic sister Sahra, and her genetic father Nur Said to use false names to apply for asylum as members of the Omar family.
Ilhan’s genetic family split up at this time. The above three received asylum in the United States, while Ilhan’s three other siblings — using their real names — managed to get asylum in the United Kingdom.
Ilhan Abdullahi Omar’s name, before applying for asylum, was Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.
Her father’s name before applying for asylum was Nur Said Elmi Mohamed. Her sister Sahra Noor’s name before applying for asylum was Sahra Nur Said Elmi. Her three siblings who were granted asylum by the United Kingdom are Leila Nur Said Elmi, Mohamed Nur Said Elmi, and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
Ilhan and Ahmed married in 2009, presumably to benefit in some way from a fraudulent marriage. They did not divorce until 2017.
And on March 18, 2025 Somaliland posted:
Receipts: Ilhan Omar’s original last name was Elmi before it was changed.
This evidence was available, but the Obama Justice Department refused to investigate.
Her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and their father, Nur Said Elmi (also known as Nur Omar), used multiple names across different countries. Part of the family fled to the United Kingdom, while Ilhan Omar and others entered the United States under their father’s assumed name, “Omar.”
These name changes and split identities were used to conceal the father’s true war crimes and identity.
Marriage details:
- Groom: Ahmed Nur Said Elmi
- Bride: Ilhan Abdullahi Omar
(real name Ilhan Elmi)
Accompanying the post were two images of, respectively, a Hennepin County, MN marriage license application and subsequent marriage certificate, both of which are public records.
Below the document images is a March 16 post which reads, “Careful now, daughter of the Colonel… it’s all true. ALL of it. We’ve got the receipts—and they’re looking extra right now. Might be time to talk extradition… DOJ. x.com/ilhanmn/status…”
Somaliland’s comment appears to have been a reply to Omar’s post of March 16 reacting to President Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office that day, with Vance standing by his side, alleging she is a “ringleader” of the Minneapolis-based fraud scheme which exploded into the national news cycle in November.
“Somalia is a third-world, maybe a fourth-world nation, one of the worst, one of the most dangerous; they don’t have anything…they shoot each other all over the place,” Trump said. “They come here and they steal $19 billion — it’s crazy… And Ilhan Omar — I hope this is part of it, but she married her brother, supposedly; I mean, there’s a lot of documentation; that means she’s here illegally and she’s a congresswoman…she’s one of the ringleaders here; she’s bad news…”
U.S. Citizenship?
Article I, Section 2, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires that all members of the U.S. House and Senate be U.S. citizens for seven and nine years, respectively.
In 2022, AJ Kern, a DFL primary candidate and challenger to Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, raised questions as to whether Omar, who was born in Somalia, had ever become a U.S. citizen as she claimed by derivation at age 17 through the naturalization of her father, Nur Omar Mohamed.
As The Post & Email has detailed, neither the Department of Homeland Security nor United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was able to locate naturalization records for Omar father in response to Kern’s FOIA requests following his reported 2021 death.
In January, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN2) asked the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence to subpoena Omar’s immigration records. In a rare, accurate citation at what lies at the heart of Omar’s eligibility to serve in Congress, on February 21 Burchett told the co-hosts of “Fox & Friends” that if Omar’s father did not naturalize, her own citizenship was in question, and if she lacked U.S. citizenship, she could potentially be expelled from that body.