'She Could Go to Jail': Trump Warns Ilhan Omar and Brands Her a 'Sick Person' — as Fraud Investigation of Minnesota Rep. Continues
Trump used the investigation into Ilhan Omar to call out Somalia.
Oct. 21 2026, Published 12:22 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump claimed that Rep. Ilhan Omar "could go to jail" and that "they keep talking about deportation" amid the investigation into her immigration, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Trump made the comments in the Oval Office in response to a reporter's question about whether a problem with Omar's age could result in deportation.
Trump Says Ilhan Omar Could Go To Jail
Homeland Security is conducting an investigation into Ilhan Omar's immigration proceedings.
"She could be. She could also go to jail," he said.
The remarks came during an event announcing a federal fraud whistleblower incentive program, and they followed the Oct. 12 search of Omar's Washington home by Homeland Security Investigations.
Agents seized her passport, cellphone and computers under a court-authorized warrant, but no charges have been filed.
Omar has called the probe a "ludicrous, partisan investigation" and labeled it "fascism."
Trump Criticizes Somalia
Trump's negative rhetoric against Somalia has been extensive.
"This is just my opinion, I think she's a sick, very dishonest person who hates our country, and she comes from a country that essentially is not even a country," Trump claimed. "Somalia, It's a real sh-thouse, okay? It's got no government. It's got no police protection. All they do is have people running around shooting each other."
He added, "Then she comes over here, and she says, and she wants to tell us how to run America. She wants to tell us how to run the United States of America. And she'll say, 'Oh, I have constitutional rights.' And she never heard the word. She never saw that before."
Trump Claims Somalians Don't Work
Trump made the false claim that 98 percent of Somalians don't work.
Trump said Somalis vote for Omar and that most of them should not be here.
"Did you know they have, like, a 98 percent unemployment rate? They don't work. 98 percent," he said.
"It's a disgrace, and they've ruined a great state. You know, you have a great state. I remember Minnesota in the old days. What a beautiful, with lakes all over the place. They had more lakes than any place I've ever seen. So beautiful. They're destroying it. Probably, maybe they've destroyed it," Trump said.
According to the Somali National Bureau of Statistics, the Somali Labor Force Survey 2019 revealed that the unemployment rate was 21.4 percent for those aged 15 and over at the time.
Investigation Into Ilhan Omar
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Omar and her family came from Somalia to the United States in the '90s.
The investigation concerns whether Omar or her late father misrepresented her age on immigration paperwork when the family came to the United States from Somalia in the 1990s.
Omar has said she arrived as a 12-year-old child war refugee and that she received automatic citizenship as a minor-age child of a naturalized parent when her father naturalized in 2000.
Her attorneys have written the Justice Department that there is no legitimate basis for any suggestion she violated any law concerning her citizenship status, and they have demanded the return of the seized property.
