‘Seems Like Something Fishy Is There’: JD Vance Previews Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Investigation

Vice President JD Vance said “something fishy is there” as he previewed the investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for immigration fraud during a White House press conference Tuesday.

Vance filled in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt and took a question from Reagan Reese, The Daily Caller‘s White House Correspondent, about The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.

President Donald Trump put Vance at the helm of the task force, which is investigating potential schemes for taking advantage of the government.

“You previously mentioned that Ilhan Omar seemed to have committed immigration fraud,” Reese said. “Do you anticipate an indictment against her, an indictment related to that situation?”

Omar has been the subject of Republican scrutiny related to questions about immigration fraud, including whether she defrauded the government by marrying her brother to gain his residency in the U.S.; family finances; and her connection to a COVID-era welfare fraud scheme. Omar has denied the allegations against her and told the GOP to investigate “whatever you want” — while also slamming what she calls racist attacks on the Somali community in her state. Trump has repeatedly called for Omar to be sent home and said he doesn’t want Somalis in the U.S.

“Yes, so, Reagan, I don’t want to prejudge an investigation,” Vance said. “I mean, you read the things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws. So, we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think it is a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime. That’s something that the Department of Justice is looking at right now.”

Reagan also asked Vance, “Based on what you’ve seen during your work on this anti-fraud task force, do you believe anything should change about our immigration or refugee policies to stop fraud in the United States?”

In response, Vance criticized former President Joe Biden‘s administration for allowing “the asylum and refugee claimant process to become totally fraudulent.”

“Well, yeah, I mean look, one thing I’d say is that the biggest immigration fraud that existed under the Biden administration is not just that they let a flood of people across the southern border, that was obviously a very major problem, and something I’m proud of the president for stopping, but it’s also that they allowed the asylum and refugee claimant process to become totally fraudulent,” he said.

Vance continued:

Here’s what would happen … You would take a person who in normal cases would just be a traditional economic immigrant, whether you let them into the country or not, they’re trying to come because they want a better job. Okay, they would come into the country and say that they were fleeing persecution, and they would say that they were an asylum claimant. ]

And then effectively, what the Biden administration would do is say, ‘Okay, you’re an asylee, go into the interior of the country. Here’s a work permit, maybe come back in 10 or 12 years for your hearing on whether you actually have a legitimate asylum claim.’ So what does that mean? That meant that person was just completely given amnesty and released into the interior of the country. Well, what if that person was a criminal? What if that person actually had a violent history?

We didn’t do any of the work necessary to ensure that the people coming into our country claiming to be asylum claimants actually had anything legitimate or anything good in their background. So, that is a serious problem. It is something that we have fixed in the Trump administration. But fundamentally, that loophole, you’re going to see sometime in the future, somebody is going to try to exploit that loophole. And it’s one of the things that we’re very focused on in the fraud task force is making sure that the people who exploited that loophole are actually prosecuted for it, assuming they committed a crime.

Watch the clip above.

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