Turbocharged U.S. denaturalization operation: Who’s at risk?

Turbocharged U.S. denaturalization operation: Who’s at risk? | Daily Tribune

The planning phase is over. The launch pad is set. The turbocharged rocket ship carrying millions of naturalized American citizens has been cleared for liftoff into space.

It’s time now for the passengers, wary and queasy as they are, to brace for a bumpy ride to the Lunar Sea of Intranquility to meet everyone’s destiny.

A non-stellar journey that can make or break one’s grip on the American dream.

According to multiple media reports, the Trump administration is ramping up its so-called “turbocharged” denaturalization effort by deploying hundreds of USDHS specialists in various USCIS field offices across the country.

The goal? To unearth potential denaturalization cases by training local employees in the art of flagging suspicious citizenship records with the end in view of referring at least a hundred cases per month to the US Department of Justice (US DoJ) and for the initiation of appropriate civil or criminal denaturalization proceedings.

Unlike the famed Apollo expeditions, however, the bar appears relatively lower for this turbocharged mission.

As announced previously by the US DoJ’s Civil Division, among the possible grounds for the initiation of civil denaturalization proceedings (as opposed to a criminal revocation of citizenship) are illegal procurement of naturalization and concealment of a material fact by willful misrepresentation.

Among the cited examples are: (a) cases against individuals deemed a threat to national security; (b) cases against persons engaged in torture, war crimes, and other human rights violations; (c) cases against gang members and criminal syndicates; (d) cases against individuals with undisclosed felonies during the naturalization process; (e) cases against human traffickers, sex offenders, and violent criminals; (f) cases against persons who commit financial fraud against the government; (g) cases against people who commit naturalization fraud through corruption or material misrepresentation; (h) cases referred by the US Attorney’s Office; and (i) any other cases deemed important to pursue.

Under 8 USC 1451, for a civil denaturalization case to succeed, the government must prove its allegations by “clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence,” a bar that is significantly lower than the “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” standard in criminal revocation proceedings.

Potentially, therefore, anyone who, regardless of intent, committed a misrepresentation during a naturalization application, or whose citizenship was procured illegally by mistake or through non-compliance with the statutory requirements, may fall under the ambit of civil denaturalization rules.

To illustrate, a person who lied regarding a past offense and whose conviction occurred after being naturalized may be stripped of US citizenship. The same is true for people who obtained their green cards by misrepresenting their marital status, as well as those whose citizenship applications were approved in error, i.e., failure to meet the residency requirement.

Even people who committed minor tax violations prior to becoming US citizens are fair game if their indiscretion is discovered post-naturalization.

Per official USCIS records, there was an average of 730,100 new US citizens annually from 2010 to 2019. However, the number jumped to 969,380 in 2022, about a third of whom came from the Philippines, Mexico, India, the Dominican Republic and Vietnam.

And yet, looking on the bright side (of the moon), assuming 150 denaturalization cases per month out of almost a million new US citizens per year would mean that only a fraction would live a life of un-magnificent desolation.