# Ilhan Omar - A thread about her marriage and immigration history. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 20, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347 "2019-07-20T12:32:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/21 "2019-07-22T15:57:46Z")
Why, he has binders full of lists of rules he hasn’t broken. Totes legit. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/22 "2019-07-22T16:02:26Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Why, he has binders full of lists of rules he hasn’t broken. Totes legit. Totes Legit-Sounds like a Dick Tracy villain. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/23 "2019-07-22T16:11:39Z")
I once knew a woman who married her broker. They really bonded. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/24 "2019-07-22T16:14:52Z")
Serious (just asking!) question: what’s the logistics of making most-likely-troll accounts and letting them sit for two years before they get used? What’s the point? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/25 "2019-07-22T16:21:30Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Serious (just asking!) question: what’s the logistics of making most-likely-troll accounts and letting them sit for two years before they get used? What’s the point? Speculation here, but you make a sock as an “spare” account when trolling because you figure you’ll get banned eventually. When you do get banned, you start posting as your “lurker” account and people can’t say “Jojo got banned and the next day Bobo is created, obvious sock”. Also, some forums limit what you can do until an account has been around a while. Making alts ahead of time gets you around that when you have to shed one mask and wear another. I don’t believe SDMB has any such rules but once you get in that habit elsewhere it becomes habit. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/26 "2019-07-22T16:28:31Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > As far as I can tell, there’s still no actual evidence (aside from a maybe-exists, maybe-it-doesn’t supposed social media post about nieces/nephews that may or may not have been made by the person in question) that she married her brother. And if I understand immigration law at the time correctly, there would have been no immigration motive – her brother would have had the same ability to immigrate as her husband. > > Sounds a lot like birtherism to me – bullshit evidence, tons of innuendo from internet nutbars, and (unfortunately) significant numbers of Americans who latch on because they’re eager for any reason, even bullshit ones, to cast aspersions on dark-skinned people who reach high office. Dad had an affair. They’re only half siblings. If so, I assume that, that would negate the immigration advantage. You would also need to look at the timelines. Plausibly, Elmi isn’t the most organized person in the world, decides at the last minute that he’ll come to try living with the rest of the family while going to college in the US and, at the point he makes the announcement, the amount of time it will take for approval is insufficient. The marriage route might be the only pathway to get him over in time for school, without having to wait a year or two. And maybe Elmi isn’t real sold on the whole America thing to begin with (he does ultimately decided to go back to the UK, after all) so he’s going to go to a university in the UK if the visa thing can’t be figured out in time, rather than work at McD’s for a year or two waiting for things to be figured out. Most likely it would have been a longer process, after all. Whatever caused the family to be split up would have to be explained and the family connection established. You’re fighting both a perjury accusation from previous disclosures of your family size and having to establish a new legal record that goes against previous ones, which isn’t the favorite thing of a bureaucracy. What’s on paper is always more believable than the actual person’s word. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/27 "2019-07-22T16:33:02Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Dad had an affair. They’re only half siblings. If so, I assume that, that would negate the immigration advantage. > > You would also need to look at the timelines. Plausibly, Elmi isn’t the most organized person in the world, decides at the last minute that he’ll come to try living with the rest of the family while going to college in the US and, at the point he makes the announcement, the amount of time it will take for approval is insufficient. The marriage route might be the only pathway to get him over in time for school, without having to wait a year or two. And maybe Elmi isn’t real sold on the whole America thing to begin with (he does ultimately decided to go back to the UK, after all) so he’s going to go to a university in the UK if the visa thing can’t be figured out in time, rather than work at McD’s for a year or two waiting for things to be figured out. > > Most likely it would have been a longer process, after all. Whatever caused the family to be split up would have to be explained and the family connection established. You’re fighting both a perjury accusation from previous disclosures of your family size and having to establish a new legal record that goes against previous ones, which isn’t the favorite thing of a bureaucracy. What’s on paper is always more believable than the actual person’s word. Very interesting guesses. Perhaps you should write a short story? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/28 "2019-07-22T17:02:53Z")
Gosh, there was already a thread in this forum about it and it wasn’t going well for the OP. Did you really need to start another one? Frankly, I don’t believe it for a minute and I don’t fucking care about the issue. I’m just annoyed that this has become the same sort of time wasting, people insulting bullshit as questioning Obama’s birth certificate. But then, I don’t expect any better from people who think locking children in cages with no toothbrushes or bedding and making them drink from a toilet is the right thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/29 "2019-07-22T17:24:18Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Very interesting guesses. Perhaps you should write a short story? The alternative is that a few right-wing bloggers were able to falsify a fairly prodigious quantity of screenshots, learning Somali along the way, at a much higher level than their graphic abilities would seem to indicate. And then, for whatever reason, Omar decided that she didn’t like the prospect of the free money that she could get by suing their assess. And, further, that Omar’s husband, asked to give his address, decided to give Omar’s husband’s address instead of his own. Omar’s husband didn’t leave that address until a few months later. I’ll also note that a fair quantity of what they have alleged is independently verifiable. Screenshots being faked as may be, if you can verify something as true, it doesn’t matter that you got to it via a liar. Any hypothesis needs to explain the available truths. As it is, I was able to verify that the family is still friendly with the ex, which does contend with the divorce proceedings; that Omar’s dad goes by another name in person than he does legally; address information puts Omar with both husbands at the same time, which goes against her current story; and the person who originally started the story seems to have been a guy who simply dislikes hypocrites in the Somali community, was a moderator on his site, and he cited his work. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/30 "2019-07-22T17:27:16Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Dad had an affair. They’re only half siblings. If so, I assume that, that would negate the immigration advantage. Your assumption is incorrect. > [@](#): > > The definition of sibling in the U.S. immigration law includes people who were the children of at least one common parent; that is, it includes half-blood siblings. [Link](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-us-citizen-sponsor-half-sister-half-brother-green-card.html) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/31 "2019-07-22T17:37:31Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Speculation here, but you make a sock as an “spare” account when trolling because you figure you’ll get banned eventually. When you do get banned, you start posting as your “lurker” account and people can’t say “Jojo got banned and the next day Bobo is created, obvious sock”. > > Also, some forums limit what you can do until an account has been around a while. Making alts ahead of time gets you around that when you have to shed one mask and wear another. I don’t believe SDMB has any such rules but once you get in that habit elsewhere it becomes habit. Less lazy trolls make an occasional post during their dormant period—typically something sufficiently anodyne or inscrutable to avoid attracting attention— and when they do “go live,” start off slowly and make a minimal effort to disguise their online voice, so it isn’t instantly, glaringly obvious to everyone that they’re the latest avatar of a pathetic sad sack whose other main sock account was recently banned or suspended. Our newly “woke” OP is not a less lazy troll. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/32 "2019-07-22T17:38:44Z")
I once knew a woman who wanted to get her hair done for free so she married her brusher. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/33 "2019-07-22T17:41:28Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Less lazy trolls make an occasional post during their dormant period—typically something sufficiently anodyne or inscrutable to avoid attracting attention— and when they do “go live,” start off slowly and make a minimal effort to disguise their online voice, so it isn’t instantly, glaringly obvious to everyone that they’re the latest avatar of a pathetic sad sack whose other main sock account was recently banned or suspended. > > Our newly “woke” OP is not a less lazy troll. One problem is that our conservative friends have made up SOOOOOOOOO much crazy shit that, even if they came up with something like this and it was TRUE no one would believe it. It’s “The boy who cried wolf”. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/34 "2019-07-22T17:44:26Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The alternative is that a few right-wing bloggers were able to falsify a fairly prodigious quantity of screenshots, learning Somali along the way, at a much higher level than their graphic abilities would seem to indicate. Or that those screenshots were just slightly modified, or they say something different than you think they say, or a million other possibilities. > [@](#): > > And then, for whatever reason, Omar decided that she didn’t like the prospect of the free money that she could get by suing their assess. Likely she recognized that evidence doesn’t matter for this kind of thing (see birtherism), and a lawsuit would just bring more attention to it. > [@](#): > > And, further, that Omar’s husband, asked to give his address, decided to give Omar’s husband’s address instead of his own. Omar’s husband didn’t leave that address until a few months later. Whether true or not, who cares? Maybe he was staying with them, or maybe this is bullshit, or maybe a miscommunication, or maybe a million other possibilities. > [@](#): > > I’ll also note that a fair quantity of what they have alleged is independently verifiable. Screenshots being faked as may be, if you can verify something as true, it doesn’t matter that you got to it via a liar. Any hypothesis needs to explain the available truths. None of the “verifiable” info actually consists of evidence she married her brother. > [@](#): > > As it is, I was able to verify that the family is still friendly with the ex, which does contend with the divorce proceedings; that Omar’s dad goes by another name in person than he does legally; address information puts Omar with both husbands at the same time, which goes against her current story; and the person who originally started the story seems to have been a guy who simply dislikes hypocrites in the Somali community, was a moderator on his site, and he cited his work. None of this actually consists of evidence she married her brother. She would get no immigration benefit from doing so. Why do you think this is a reasonable supposition? What possible gain could they have for doing so? Why are you so ready to believe something with such incredibly weak evidence, and no motive? ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/35 "2019-07-22T18:02:08Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Nothing speaks to one’s innocence more than beginning a convo with a list of rules one hasn’t broken. > > “Officer, I surely wasn’t speeding and that kicking you hear in my trunk is merely the muffler, and this is ketchup on my shirt.” Reminds me of a certain public official crowing about being a “stable genius.” Just as genuine stable geniuses/genii don’t feel a need to tout the fact, neither do genuine non-socks/trolls. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/36 "2019-07-22T18:23:57Z")
What is the reason for the obsession with this one member of Congress, not just on the part of the OP but also Fox News and others? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/37 "2019-07-22T18:25:23Z")
Have you not _seen_ her? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/38 "2019-07-22T18:58:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What is the reason for the obsession with this one member of Congress, not just on the part of the OP but also Fox News and others? I suspect because she’s the only one of “The Squad” that Trump told to “go home” that actually immigrated into the US. There’s no point in making the others “poster children” for anti-immigration hate, because they were born here. But telling her to “go home” sounds less insane than telling the others to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/39 "2019-07-22T19:01:55Z")
Female, immigrant, Black, Muslim, and a decent human being. Everything their hero is not. Scares the crud out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347/40 "2019-07-22T19:24:08Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > And, further, that Omar’s husband, asked to give his address, decided to give Omar’s husband’s address instead of his own. Omar’s husband didn’t leave that address until a few months later. Either my brain is not working, or this paragraph was poorly worded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ilhan-omar-a-thread-about-her-marriage-and-immigration-history/837347.md?page=3)