Former Minnesota congressional candidate AJ Kern says she possesses a Certificate of Non-Existence of Record from the Department of Homeland Security confirming that federal databases contain no naturalization records for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed (also referenced with variants such as Nur Said Elmi Mohamed).
During an explosive interview with Newsmax host Rob Finnerty, Kern said she received a Certificate of Non-Existence of Record from the Department of Homeland Security following her efforts to investigate the immigration history of Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed.
Kern: “I requested his naturalization records, and I did receive a response from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that they did a thorough search of their records and using all variations of her father’s name, and he’s not in the database.
[…]
I have a certificate of nonexistence of record from the Department of Homeland Security. I have both of those documents. I’ve been very open about having them and I don’t think that the government just, you know, issues those without having done the thorough search. And they are signed. And given that there’s no naturalization records for him, then it makes her whole issue of her age irrelevant.”
WATCH:
“I have a Certificate of Non-Existence of Record from the Department of Homeland Security.”
AJ Kern says her search for Ilhan Omar’s father’s naturalization records came back empty: “There’s no naturalization records for him; then it makes her whole issue of her age irrelevant.” https://t.co/16g1MvrepY
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 20, 2026
According to the New York Post, Kern, who challenged Omar in the 2022 Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th District, requested records on the deceased father (who died in 2020) after determining she could not access Omar’s own living-person immigration files.
She received a USCIS response dated around June 20, 2023, stating that a thorough search of databases using all name variations found no matching index reference.
She then obtained the formal DHS Certificate of Nonexistence of Record, dated September 6, 2023, and signed by Douglas C. Marr of the National Records Center’s Immigration Information Integrity Branch.
The certificate documented a diligent search of systems including the Central Index System and related databases that turned up no record.
According to the official Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Omar was born October 4, 1982, in Mogadishu, Somalia.
She fled the country with her family during the Somali civil war, spent several years in a refugee camp in Kenya, and arrived in the United States in 1995.
The congressional biography states she became a naturalized American citizen in 2000 at age 17.
Kern has questioned both the timing of Omar’s naturalization and her father’s citizenship records.
In her published investigation, Kern argues that if Mohamed never naturalized, Omar could not have obtained derivative citizenship through his naturalization.
That is the central question Kern wants federal officials to answer.
On October 12, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant at her Washington, D.C.-area residence as part of a probe focused on documents completed by her late father.
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Officials have examined possible false statements, age discrepancies, and other issues that could support denaturalization proceedings if proven.
Legal observers, including Jonathan Turley, have noted that immigration laws treat material misrepresentations in the naturalization process seriously and that derivative claims hinge on the validity of the parent’s status.
