My Name Has Always Been Ilhan Omar

EASTORA REPORT | A Father’s Day message Ilhan Omar posted in 2013 has returned to the center of a federal investigation into her identity and immigration history.

The post was simple.

“Happy Father’s Day to my aabo Nur Said,” Omar wrote, using the Somali word for father.

Six years later, as questions about her marriage history intensified, the post disappeared from her account. At the time, Omar’s office said “Nur Said” was a longtime nickname for her father and rejected suggestions that the deletion proved anything improper.

Now the name has resurfaced in a far more serious setting.

Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington home on Oct. 12 as part of an investigation into whether false information was provided on immigration and citizenship documents involving Omar or her late father.

Then, in a Justice Department filing this week, prosecutors referred to the Minnesota congresswoman as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a.k.a. Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.”

The filing did not explain why that name was used and did not accuse Omar of fraud.

But its appearance immediately revived scrutiny of the old Father’s Day post — and of Omar’s former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.

Critics have long alleged that Elmi was actually Omar’s brother and that their marriage was connected to immigration. Omar has repeatedly denied that allegation, and it has never been established in court.

The similarity of the names is also not proof of a family relationship. Somali naming conventions commonly use a person’s father’s and grandfather’s given names rather than a fixed Western-style surname.

What makes the old post newly significant is not that it settles the question.

It is that federal investigators are now examining some of the same questions about Omar’s identity and immigration history that have followed her for years.

Omar insists there is no mystery.

“My name has always been Ilhan Omar,” she said Friday.