DOJ Files Denaturalization Actions Against 17 Naturalized Citizens Accused of Child Sex Abuse, Terrorism Support, Fraud and Drug Trafficking
The DOJ accused the 17 individuals of serious offenses and alleged they provided false information during naturalization. The action follows a similar filing against 12 people last month.
TimeU.S. citizens on Monday, accusing them of serious offenses including sexual abuse of a minor, wire and bank fraud, and distributing drugs wholesale without a license. The 17 individuals include people from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, and Jamaica.
The DOJ alleged that each gave false or misleading information to officials during the naturalization process and lacked the good moral character required to become a naturalized citizen. S. ” The Trump Administration announced plans to denaturalize a dozen other naturalized citizens about a month before the latest action.
Last month the DOJ filed denaturalization actions against 12 people accused of providing material support to a terrorist group, committing war crimes, and sexually abusing a minor. A DOJ memo released last year stated that the agency planned to prioritize denaturalization proceedings against individuals who pose a potential danger to national security and those who committed felonies that were not disclosed during the naturalization process.
In January, President Donald Trump said his Administration was looking into stripping certain naturalized Americans of their citizenship.
U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that a person is subject to revocation if there is deliberate deceit in misrepresenting or failing to disclose a material fact on the naturalization application and subsequent examination. Denaturalization cases averaged 42 per year during Trump’s first Administration, compared with an average of 11 cases filed annually between 1990 and 2017, according to the National Immigration Forum.
President Trump campaigned on a mass deportation platform in the 2024 election and has authorized aggressive immigration enforcement operations during his second term, including in Minneapolis, where two people were shot and killed by federal agents at the start of the year.
