DOJ widens denaturalization push
The Justice Department has started using denaturalization more often, a rare legal tool that can strip citizenship from naturalized Americans if the government proves fraud or hidden crimes. On Friday, officials announced civil complaints or charges against 12 people from Iraq, Somalia, China, India, Uzbekistan, and Colombia. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said anyone who hid criminal histories or lied during naturalization will face the fullest extent of the law. After years when this tool was mostly gathering dust, the bureaucracy has finally found a new favorite lever.
Allegations range from terror links to fake marriages
Among the cases, authorities say Ali Yousif Ahmed got U.S. citizenship after claiming he fled Iraq because al-Qaeda attacked his family, while leaving out claims that Iraq later sought his extradition over the killing of two police officers. Another case involves Salah Osman Ahmed of Somalia, who naturalized in 2007 and later pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists, with prosecutors saying he belonged to al-Shabaab. Other defendants are accused of sham marriages or hiding serious criminal convictions, including Oscar Alberto Pelaez, a Colombian priest convicted of child sex abuse offenses. The basic idea is not complicated, even if the paperwork is: if the citizenship story was built on lies, the government now wants the receipt.
A rare tool with a high legal bar
Denaturalization has long been unusual. Over about 30 years, the Justice Department filed roughly 305 cases, then 168 more after President Trump first took office in 2017. That pace slowed under President Joe Biden, and now it is moving again under Trump. Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said the government must meet a high bar and prove, with clear and convincing evidence, that material fraud occurred. In plain English, the lie has to matter. Federal paperwork may be many things, but it is rarely subtle, and now it is being asked to do heavy lifting.
Critics fear spillover for millions of citizens
Immigrant rights groups say the broadened effort could rattle the roughly 24 million naturalized citizens in the United States, especially if agencies start treating small mistakes like major deception. Christian Penichet-Paul of the Forum warned last year that denaturalization could reach people who made minor or unintentional omissions on their applications. Blanche has said the administration is not limiting itself to any one group and has hinted that more cases are coming in the days and weeks ahead. He also told CBS News that people who got citizenship through fraud should be worried, which is the sort of warning that makes government forms sound almost lively.
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