J.D. Vance Says DOJ Reviewing Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Claims [WATCH]

Vice President J.D. Vance said Tuesday that the Department of Justice is “looking at” allegations involving Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and possible immigration fraud, while declining to predict whether an indictment could follow, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.

Vance made the remarks during a White House press briefing after Daily Caller reporter Reagan Reese asked about his previous comments regarding Omar and longstanding allegations connected to her immigration history and marriage records.

President Trump has tasked Vance with leading the White House Fraud Task Force, an initiative focused on investigating efforts to defraud the federal government through welfare programs and immigration-related schemes.

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Vance chairs the task force, while Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson serves as vice chairman.

According to President Trump’s executive order establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, “the Task Force will coordinate measures to improve eligibility verification, implement pre-payment controls, detect high-risk fraud trends, and disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and the mechanisms through which fraud is committed.”

During Tuesday’s briefing, Reese asked Vance whether he expected an indictment related to Omar.

“You previously mentioned that Ilhan Omar seemed to have committed immigration fraud. Do you anticipate an indictment against her, an indictment related to that situation?” Reese asked.

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Vance said he would not prejudge the investigation, but said the matter is under review.

“Yeah, so Reagan, I don’t want to prejudge an investigation. I mean, you’re reading things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she did marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws. So, we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime, and that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now,” Vance said.

The comments came after Vance said in a March interview that Omar “definitely committed immigration fraud, against the United States of America” and that his task force was examining available options.

“We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud?” Vance said in March.

“How do you investigate her? How do you go after her?” he added.

On Tuesday, Vance also addressed broader concerns about the asylum and refugee process, arguing that the Biden administration allowed people to use asylum claims to enter the country and remain for years before receiving hearings.

Vance said a “traditional economic immigrant” could enter the country by claiming persecution and then be treated as an asylum claimant.

“would come into the country and say that they were fleeing persecution, and they would say that they were an asylum claimant, and then, effectively, what the Biden administration would do is say, ‘ Okay, you’re an asylee, go into the interior of the country. Here’s a work permit, maybe come back in 10 or 12 years for your hearing on whether you actually have a legitimate asylum claim.’”

Vance said the Trump administration has addressed that issue, but warned that others could attempt to exploit the same process in the future.

“It is something that we have fixed in the Trump administration, but fundamentally that loophole you’re going to see sometime in the future, somebody is going to try to exploit that loophole, and it’s one of the things that we’re very focused on in the fraud task force, is making sure that the people who exploited that loophole are actually prosecuted for it, assuming they committed a crime,” Vance said.

The White House comments add new attention to Omar, who has long faced allegations from critics involving her immigration background.

Vance said the investigation would proceed under the same legal standards applied to anyone else, saying “everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws.”

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