The Trump administration announced Monday that it is seeking to revoke the U.S. citizenship of 17 people accused of immigration fraud for allegedly lying about their criminal convictions or accusations of serious crimes, including child sex abuse.
The Justice Department’s move is the largest-ever effort by the U.S. government to use its denaturalization powers to support a deportation blitz. Between 1990 and 2017, the department filed an average of 11 legal complaints per year to denaturalize American citizens, according to its records.
Under federal law, a naturalized U.S. citizen can have his or her citizenship revoked and certificate of naturalization canceled if it was obtained illegally through concealment of criminal conduct on immigration applications. However, the process is lengthy and complex, and is rarely invoked by the federal government.
“American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. “DHS will not stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals, including sex offenders, perpetrators of fraud, and drug traffickers who have exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system.”
Some of the 17 citizens targeted in the campaign were convicted of violent and serious crimes, including sex offenses, while others were accused or convicted of immigration or healthcare fraud. Not all of the 17 individuals have been convicted of the charges they were alleged to have covered up on their immigration application.
One of the 17, Fernando Cristancho of Colombia, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, entered the U.S. as a religious worker and then used his leadership position to gain access to sexually abuse minors, according to the Justice Department. He admitted to sexually grooming and abusing a minor parishioner during a period when the victim was 11 to 13 years old. He pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and entitlement, resulting in a 22-year prison sentence.
The Justice Department says he hid the crime from immigration officials.
Others include a Haitian immigrant who allegedly sexually abused his daughter; a Yugoslavian man convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 15; an immigrant from Mexico convicted of receiving sexually explicit images of minors, and a Filipino man who pled guilty to a child sex crime.
The group also includes an Indian immigrant accused of filing fraudulent H-1B visa petitions, the daughter of a Colombian drug trafficker accused of money laundering, a Jamaican man convicted of wire fraud and a Cuban-born woman accused of defrauding a tribal casino.
Administration officials have been escalating denaturalization efforts as part of their broader crackdown on illegal immigration. In May, the Justice Department announced a dozen denaturalization cases, its largest in decades.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department has “zero tolerance” for abusing the naturalization process.
“Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters,” Mr. Blanche said in a statement.
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