The Trump administration is launching a new department within the DOJ that will revoke the citizenship of immigrants who lied on their naturalization application about their criminal history:
FOX NEWS – The Trump administration is establishing a new section within the Justice Department to deal with the process of removing citizenship from foreign-born individuals who fraudulently obtained citizenship by failing to disclose past convictions for serious crimes — including terrorism and war crimes.
The section, which will be within the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, will be dedicated to denaturalizing those who had failed to disclose they had been involved in criminal activity on their N-400 form for naturalization. It requires the government to show that citizenship was obtained illegally or “procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.”
That form includes questions asking whether an applicant has been involved in genocide and torture among other serious crimes, if they have ever been part of a terrorist or totalitarian organization, if they had been associated with the Nazi government in Germany, and if they have been charged or convicted with a crime or served prison time. Targets for denaturalization are those who have made material breaches of those questions.
“When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system — and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said. “The new Denaturalization Section will further the Department’s efforts to pursue those who unlawfully obtained citizenship status and ensure that they are held accountable for their fraudulent conduct.”
I just watched a section on Fox News about this and the reporter said that this office is not meant for law abiding citizens or for those who commit crimes AFTER they become citizens. It’s only meant for hardened criminals or terrorists who lied in order to get citizenship.
For someone who is denaturalized, their citizenship will be revoked and they will become permanent residents again, which means they can be deported:
Citizens cannot be deported, but those who have been stripped of citizenship revert back to permanent residency status, which allows deportation or barring of entry from the U.S. in the case of serious criminal offenses.
I’m sure this is going to cause the left to freak out and they’ll accuse Trump of being xenophobic and anti-immigrant. But I like this move, as it allows the Trump administration to retroactively denaturalize people who lied to become citizens at a time when those lies may have been intentionally overlooked. 👀