Florida Rep. Randy Fine is open to deporting Melania Trump over any immigration lies while pushing a review of naturalized citizens since 1990 after the Omar home raid.
Homeland Security Investigations agents raided Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12. The Department of Justice described the search as part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.”
Investigators issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas tied to the matter, including to the congresswoman’s relatives. Omar, 44, has not been charged to date. She denied wrongdoing in a recent interview, said she fears returning to the property, and claimed death threats.
The raid set the stage for Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine to press a broader point on citizenship integrity. Appearing on NewsNation Monday, Fine argued the country should re-examine everyone naturalized since 1990 because fraud of the kind surrounding Omar runs deep in Minnesota.
Independent reporting captured Fine’s exchange with anchor Nichole Berlie, who asked whether the same scrutiny should hit high-profile figures connected to the administration.
"Do you think this type of scrutiny should be placed on others who are high-profile with connections to the administration like first lady Melania Trump [or] Elon Musk, who was the head of DOGE?"
Fine answered without carving out exceptions. He said he knows of no allegations against the first lady or Musk, yet the principle remains the same for anyone who cheated the process.
"I think anyone who was not honest in their immigration paperwork, I don’t know anything about the circumstances of the first lady or Elon Musk, I don’t know that there’s ever been an allegation, but there are allegations about Ilhan Omar’s citizenship going back 10 years that people have refused to look at, in fact coming from the Somali community."
He went further on the remedy. Anyone who lied to become a citizen, he said, should lose that status and leave the country.
"I believe anyone who lied on their paperwork to become a citizen should be denaturalized and should be deported. Anyone."
Melania Trump was born and raised in Slovenia and naturalized in 2006. Elon Musk, from South Africa, received citizenship in 2002. Neither has faced serious questions about their immigration status. Fine still refused to create a special category for them.
That stance fits a first lady who has balanced public duties with private family pressures, including time with her son Barron as he grows more independent.
Omar arrived in the United States as a teenage refugee from Somalia and became a naturalized citizen in 2000. She is a well-known critic of the president. The Washington Post reported that the current probe examines whether her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, intentionally misstated her birth date on immigration paperwork when the family first arrived.
Long-running allegations that Omar married her brother and may be in the country illegally have also circulated. The president has enthusiastically taken those claims up. Omar has denied any wrongdoing.
Fine made clear where he wants the process to begin.
"So yeah, I think Ilhan Omar needs to be the first. She certainly should not be the last."
He tied the individual case to a larger pattern he says has taken root in Minnesota.
"I believe that we should go back to 1990 and we should re-evaluate everyone who has become a naturalized citizen because what I am understanding is, the kind of fraud we’re hearing about from Ilhan Omar is endemic in Minnesota with many, many, many people having gotten citizenship without giving appropriate paperwork."
Security concerns around the first lady have already drawn attention in other settings, including an armed suspect found with her schedule and Secret Service details.
Fine’s nickname is “The Hebrew Hammer,” and he prides himself on speaking his mind. In this case the mind is straightforward: citizenship paperwork is not optional, and lies on it should carry consequences regardless of fame or political connection.
The Department of Justice has declined to give further specifics beyond confirming the Omar search belongs to an active federal criminal investigation. No charges have been filed against the congresswoman. The subpoenas to relatives show investigators are still gathering records.
Melania Trump has also drawn media jabs and public smears that the White House has pushed back against, including after a Chuck Lorre attack that prompted a sharp administration response.
Fine’s comments keep the focus on process, not personalities. He does not claim Melania Trump or Elon Musk did anything wrong. He simply refuses to revise the rules when the names change. If the paperwork was false, denaturalization and deportation follow. If it was clean, the review ends there.
That position leaves little room for the selective outrage that often greets immigration enforcement. Omar’s case involves concrete investigative steps, an October 12 raid, grand jury subpoenas, and a live DOJ probe. The first lady’s file, by every public account in the record, does not.
White House schedules have already pulled Melania Trump toward fewer private hours, a shift she has signaled as Barron grows older and official demands rise.
Fine’s standard is the same one ordinary applicants are told to meet: tell the truth on the forms. When that baseline is treated as optional for some communities or some politicians, public confidence collapses. Re-checking naturalizations since 1990 is a large undertaking. Starting with documented allegations rather than political favorites is how a serious system works.
Citizenship is a legal status earned under rules, not a permanent shield against later proof of fraud. Apply those rules evenly and the country keeps the value of the oath. Ignore them for favored names and the oath becomes paperwork theater.
