Polygraph

Ilhan Omar's father passed away in 2020.

Posted by Badlands Media, Checked

Polygraph verdictTrue
Sources
8 support
Said
1 time·
Confidence
97%
Badlands MediaOct 21, 2026
View on Podcast ↗
Video frame
82 claimsThe check →

Multiple independent reliable sources, including AP, Reuters, the congresswoman's own press release, NBC, Politico, NYT and CNN, confirm that Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar's father, died in June 2020 from COVID-19 complications. The claim's only detail beyond the core is the year, which matches the record; the claim faithfully tracks the passage's '2020' reference.

The guest relays this claim without endorsing it. It counts as passed on, not against the post.

What was said

… She's claiming that when her father naturalized, that she automatically obtained citizenship, but it appears that neither of those two things are true: that her father naturalized. When he passed away in 2020, I requested his naturalization records, and I did receive a response from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that they did a a thorough search of the records, and using all variations of her father's name, and he's not in the database. Okay, let me start you right there. …
Badlands Media · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. AP and Omar's own June 15, 2020 press release state that her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, died of complications from COVID-19.[1][3]

Supports. Reuters fact-checking states that Nur Omar Mohamed passed away on June 16, 2020 due to complications from COVID-19.[2]

Supports. Multiple other outlets (NBC, Politico, NYT, CBS, CNN) independently report the same death in June 2020.[4][5][6][7][8]

Context. The claimant's own passage asserts the 2020 death as the basis for requesting naturalization records; the claim itself is graded only on the death, not on the records dispute.

Sources

8 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 primary, 5 tier 2

  1. 1Omar announces father’s death from COVID-19 complicationsapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
  2. 2Fact check: Ilhan Omar was not arrested 23 times, and other inaccuracies in meme targeting congresswomanreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
  3. 3Rep. Omar's Statement on the Passing of Her Fatheromar.house.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
  4. 4Ilhan Omar's father dies from coronavirus complicationsnbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
  5. 5Ilhan Omar's father dies from Covid-19politico.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
  6. 6Rep. Ilhan Omar's Father Dies From COVID-19 ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
  7. 7Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Father Dies From Complications of Covid-19nytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
  8. 8Rep. Ilhan Omar says her father Nur Omar Mohamed died from ... -...cnn.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

How Polygraph checks a claim

Our Weekly Newsletter

The Readout

The week's most-shared posts, checked. What they claimed, how they argued, and what held up.

Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy policy.