Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks to reporters in the hallway outside a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism” at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 2024. (Drew Angerer – AFP / Getty Images)
By Michael Austin October 17, 2026 at 2:58pm
AJ Kern, a former Republican congressional candidate from Minnesota, previously examined whether Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar had come by her U.S. citizenship honestly.
In the wake of the federal investigation into that question and other matters — which included a raid on Omar’s home in Washington, D.C. — Kern is once more explaining the claims against the lawmaker.
NewsNation reported on Wednesday that back in 2019, Kern was the first to question whether Omar was 17 or 18 when she obtained citizenship through her father’s naturalization.
If she were 18 or older, she could not have become a citizen through her father.
Kern posted a video about the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library listing Omar’s birth date as Oct. 4, 1981.
Questions about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s citizenship is what led to her Washington, D.C., home being raided Monday as part of an immigration probe. Now, AJ Kern, a former GOP congressional candidate in Minnesota, is speaking out again after she had already raised questions about the validity of Omar’s citizenship years ago.
NewsNation’s @RichMcHugh breaks down where the speculation stems from. More: https://t.co/9lfXS7OHUj— NewsNation (@NewsNation) October 13, 2026
NewsNation obtained an email from Omar’s staff at the time asking the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library to change her birth year from 1981 to 1982.
As Kern continued to probe the matter, she received a Certificate of Non-Existence from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — meaning that they could not find records related to Omar’s father becoming a citizen.
“Since she claims derivative citizenship through her father and he passed away in 2020, I requested his records,” Kern told NewsNation.
“And it took a year, but I have a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services dated June 20, 2023, that states that after a thorough search of their database and using all variations of his name, that there is no record of her father’s naturalization,” she continued.
Do you believe Ilhan Omar’s citizenship status should be investigated further?
“And then I sent off to the Department of Homeland Security, and they also did a search of their database, using all variations of his name. They also found that her father was not in their database.”
Kern also detailed her findings to conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Thursday.
“It’s easy for refugees to come into the country, obtain a driver’s license, register to vote, and then all they have to do is say, ‘I’m a citizen, I’m a citizen,’ and no one can do anything about it,” Kern noted.
I just spoke with the woman who EXPOSED the Ilhan Omar birth date scandal PROVING she is NOT a U.S. citizen, then she CAUGHT Ilhan changing the date…
AJ Kern was just vindicated…Here is what she exposed:
Official records listed birth year as 1981. That made her 18 in March 2000 — too old for derived citizenship when her father first became eligible to naturalize.
Days after Kern’s video, the birth year was changed to 1982 by Omar’s congressional staffers with Minnesota records.
USCIS and DHS both confirmed no naturalization records for her father.
Minnesota does not verify citizenship for voter registration or congressional candidacy. Self-attestation is enough.
FEC and Congress also do not check. Nancy Mace’s request for Omar’s file was blocked.
Now the rest of the media, DOJ and DHS is finally catching up.
Total vindication, @AJKern8
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 15, 2026
Kern said that the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office does not verify citizenship status when candidates run for office.
“The American people believe that only Americans may occupy a seat in Congress, and there’s no way that a foreign nationalist could possibly be occupying a seat in Congress,” Kern added.
“And that’s not true.”
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Michael wrote for several entertainment news outlets before joining The Western Journal in 2020. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations, guiding the publication’s editorial direction, and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Birthplace
Ames, Iowa
Nationality
American
Education
Iowa State University
Topics of Expertise
Cultural Politics, Pop Culture, Christian-Conservatism
