DOJ orders US attorneys to revoke citizenship for naturalized Americans linked to crimes

Naturalized Americans may not be safe from deportation efforts if they commit certain types of very serious crimes.

The Department of Justice is helping to further President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda by instructing United States attorneys to prepare to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate issued a memo on June 11 advising that cases will be made against “individuals who pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism, espionage, or the unlawful export from the United States of sensitive goods, technology, or information raising national security concerns.”

“The benefits of civil denaturalization include the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to U.S. soil or traveling internationally on a U.S. passport,” the memo reads. “The Department of Justice may institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either ‘illegally procured’ naturalization or procured naturalization by ‘concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.’”

Additionally, the memo advises bringing cases against individuals who have “committed human trafficking, sex offenses, or violent crimes” and/or “engaged in various forms of financial fraud against the United States (including Paycheck Protection Program (‘PPP’) loan fraud and Medicaid/Medicare fraud).”

“Individuals who further or furthered the unlawful enterprise of criminal gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and drug cartels,” and “individuals who engaged in fraud against private individuals, funds, or corporations,” are also going to face denaturalization proceedings under the new guidance.

Shortly after the memo’s release, the DOJ announced its success in denaturalizing a “convicted collector and distributor of child sexual abuse material,” making it hard to argue that such measures would not make Americans safer.

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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