With the midterm elections about a week away, Republicans are urging voters to oust a number of Democrats. President Trump, however, is focused on one Democrat who appears likely to win re-election in a solidly Democratic district: Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She won her last race two years ago with nearly three-quarters of the vote.
Trump has questioned whether Omar is in the country legally and therefore qualified to serve in Congress. "She used a fake name to be sworn in," he said, calling her "a little troublemaker." He has suggested her real name is "an entirely different name," and says she must resign immediately.
The Department of Justice is investigating Omar for potential immigration fraud. Federal authorities recently searched her Washington home and removed 17 items, including phones, notebooks, a camera and a Somali phrase book for her children. A federal filing in the inquiry lists her as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar."
A Fox Digital reporter, Rashid Umar Abbasi, asked Omar which name was hers. "Ilhan Abdullahi Omar. You know it," she replied, and she confirmed it again when he asked for clarification. The Clerk of the House lists her only as "Ilhan Omar" on 15 financial disclosure reports going back to 2018, before she joined Congress. The same name was used in the Minnesota legislature, where she served earlier.
Whether to remove her is not the president's decision. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution gives each chamber of Congress final authority over its own membership. Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, acknowledged that power but urged restraint. "The House has the prerogative to seat or not seat and to throw Members out if it so chooses," he said, adding that there should be good, sound reasons. Such a step "should be extraordinary," he said.
The constitutional qualifications for the House are modest: a member must be a citizen, live in the state represented and be at least 25 years old. The first possible route is expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote. That seems unlikely, since Omar has not been convicted of a crime and no charges have been reported. The House has expelled only six members in its history, most recently George Santos of New York in 2023.
An effort to obtain her House devices and documents would also face obstacles. The Speech or Debate Clause in Article I, Section 6 protects lawmakers' official duties, and House counsel would likely contest any such move by federal prosecutors.
The second route is a challenge to seating her when the new Congress convenes in January. A motion could come after the Speaker is elected, with the House swearing in other members first and then voting on whether to proceed, table the motion or send it to a committee. In 1985, the House delayed seating Rep. Frank McCloskey of Indiana for several months while it investigated his election.
But the 1969 case Powell v. McCormack, in which the Supreme Court ruled the House cannot exclude a member who meets the basic constitutional standards, makes outright refusal hard to imagine. The House could seat Omar and then try to expel her, but given how rarely it has done so, that also looks doubtful. Her critics may keep raising questions about her name, yet it is unclear they can do anything about her seat.
