Rep. Randy Fine Calls for Denaturalizing and Deporting Those Who Lied on Immigration Forms

Rep. Randy Fine said Monday he would support revisiting naturalizations dating to 1990 and deporting anyone found to have lied on immigration paperwork. He made the comments after a NewsNation interview asked whether the scrutiny he sought for Rep. Ilhan Omar should also apply to Melania Trump and Elon Musk.

The exchange, first reported by Mediaite, came as federal investigators examine Omar’s family immigration paperwork. Fine called for a review of all naturalized citizens, but did not accuse either person named in the question of wrongdoing.

NewsNation anchor Nichole Berlie asked whether “this type of scrutiny” should extend to other high-profile immigrants. Fine answered that the review should apply to anyone dishonest on immigration forms.

He also drew a clear distinction. “I don't know anything about the circumstances of the First Lady or Elon Musk,” Fine said, adding that he knew of no allegations against them.

Fine tied deportation to alleged paperwork fraud, not to immigration status alone

Fine described Omar as the first person who should face scrutiny, not the only one. He said he believed that “many, many people” in Minnesota had obtained citizenship without appropriate paperwork, and called for checking naturalizations going back decades.

“I believe that we should go back to 1990 and we should re-evaluate everyone who has become a naturalized citizen,” Fine said.

He later said anyone who lied to become a citizen “should be denaturalized and should be deported.”

The question arose from Fine’s push to expel Omar from the House and seek her deportation if authorities found she had lied on her citizenship application. His call to review a broad group of naturalized citizens went beyond the congresswoman’s case.

The Omar inquiry includes a search, seized property and grand jury subpoenas

Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12, 2026. Omar said investigators arrived around 6 a.m. with a warrant, searched for four or five hours and took 17 items.

The seized property included phones, notebooks, a Somali-language children’s book and a vintage camera her husband had received as a gift. The Department of Justice described the search as part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

The inquiry is examining whether Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, intentionally misstated her birth date on immigration paperwork when the family first came to the United States. Investigators have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas connected to the matter, including to relatives. Omar has not been charged.

Omar, 44, arrived as a refugee from Somalia as a teenager and became a naturalized citizen in 2000. In an interview with Chris Hayes on MS NOW, she denied wrongdoing, said she feared returning home after the search and reported receiving death threats.

Her attorneys rejected the premise of the citizenship inquiry. They wrote that there was “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status,” and called the investigation politically motivated. Omar said she was “confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong.”

The two immigrants have different citizenship and visa histories

Berlie noted that the first lady came to the United States on what she called the “Einstein visa.” Melania was born and raised in Slovenia, received an EB-1 visa in March 2001 and became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

The EB-1 category is for people who demonstrate extraordinary ability in their fields and can provide a route to permanent residency and citizenship. Questions have been raised about whether her modeling accomplishments met that standard. Her public profile grew after she began dating Donald Trump in 1998, though she was then better known for tabloid appearances than broad international modeling recognition.

Musk, who is from South Africa, became a U.S. citizen in 2002. In 1995, he left Stanford University before completing enrollment and started the online directory company Zip2 with his brother, Kimbal Musk.

At the 2013 Milken Institute Global Conference, Kimbal described the brothers as “illegal immigrants” when Zip2 received funding. Elon responded, “Well, I'd say it was a gray area.”

Fine had also called for Mamdani's denaturalization

Fine previously targeted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him a “Muslim terrorist” and demanding he be “denaturalized and sent back home to Uganda.” The proposal to review naturalizations now reaches beyond the cases Fine has publicly singled out.

Omar is on the ballot in the midterm elections, just weeks after investigators searched her home.