Republicans and the Trump administration are pushing for the denaturalization of any immigrant-turned United States citizen who is found to have stolen U.S. tax dollars and fraudulently obtained Minnesota welfare funds.
Somali immigrants have been accused of orchestrating a successful billion-dollar fraud ring that siphoned large sums of money from the U.S. government intended for statewide charities, particularly in Minnesota.
Ron Vitiello, a Department of Homeland Security adviser, said on Tuesday that the Trump administration should “absolutely” revoke the citizenship of Somalis found to be involved in the massive scheme, a move that could send denaturalization cases far beyond historic annual norms.
“The U.S. attorney is talking about up to $9 billion. The federal government sends Minnesota $26 billion every year. That’s about a third of their budget, and they certainly weren’t watching what was happening. And so if these people are involved in fraud to get that money and send it all over the world, to keep it for themselves, they may have lied on their citizenship applications,” Vitiello told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “They might have lied on how they came into the country, et cetera. What benefits did they expose themselves to on the immigration side?”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) called for any Somalis who are found to be guilty of defrauding the United States to face swift consequences.
“I have three words regarding Somalis who have committed fraud against American taxpayers. Send them home if they’re here illegally. Deport them immediately,” Emmer said on Monday. “If they’re naturalized citizens, revoke their citizenship and deport them quickly after. If we need to change the law to do that, I will.”
Denaturalization is not a simple process and is reserved only for specific circumstances.
“From 1990 until 2017, the federal government opened an average of 11 denaturalization cases a year. During the first Trump administration, this number increased to 25 cases a year,” the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s website states.
Only immigrants who become U.S. citizens, known as naturalized citizens, may have their citizenship revoked. The government cannot revoke the citizenship status of Americans who were born in the United States, although U.S.-born citizens may renounce their citizenship.
Grounds for denaturalization include having obtained citizenship through fraud, willful misrepresentation of material facts, or if citizenship was illegally procured, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a federal agency.
Revocation can occur when the naturalized U.S. citizen misrepresented or concealed some fact; the misrepresentation or concealment was willful; the misrepresented or concealed fact or facts were material; or the naturalized U.S. citizen procured citizenship as a result of the misrepresentation or concealment, USCIS’s website states.
Minor errors or irrelevant mistakes do not meet the threshold for the type of errors that would merit denaturalization.
“A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist Party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization,” USCIS states.
However, that condition only stands for the first five years after a person becomes naturalized. The government maintains that being affiliated with a communist or totalitarian group would be adequate evidence that he or she “concealed or willfully misrepresented information that would have prevented the person’s naturalization.”
The actual decision to revoke naturalization is made by the courts, not by any one person or agency. It can only occur through a court order in the federal court system.
The Department of Homeland Security will typically refer suspected fraudulent naturalization cases to the Department of Justice if it believes it has enough evidence to support a case, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of immigrants, stated that the federal government must “meet a high burden of proof” to revoke citizenship in civil proceedings or as a result of a criminal conviction for naturalization fraud.
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“For civil denaturalization, the government must show ‘clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt’ that the individual procured naturalization illegally and/or concealed or willfully misrepresented a material fact during the naturalization process,” NIF wrote in an explainer on the subject. “There is no statute of limitations for pursuing a civil denaturalization case.”
FBI Director Kash Patel stated on Sunday that the government would be referring “many” of the 78 defendants in a $250 million fraud case for “possible further denaturalization and deportation proceedings,” an indication that the government believes it can meet the threshold for rescinding citizenship. That particular case involved federal funding that the state awarded to bogus daycare centers and early education sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
