The Trump administration appears to be stepping up its efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans, according to a new report.
Axios detailed that the administration has moved immigration lawyers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the Justice Department as part of the effort.
"We are proud to support this critical effort by providing the Department of Justice with a team of our most skilled immigration law attorneys," USCIS Spokesman Zach Kahler told the outlet.
The New York Times reported in April that the Justice Department had identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship it planned to strip.
The newspaper noted that the federal government can denaturalize a person who committed fraud. For example, a person who became a citizen through a sham marriage or who lied on documents or misrepresented themselves in some way could be vulnerable.
Also, people who are found guilty of some crimes could have their citizenship stripped.
"Citizenship fraud is a serious crime; anyone who has broken the law and obtained citizenship through fraud and deceit will be held accountable," Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told the Times.
Critics, however, say the effort could be used to target people for political or other reasons.
"The message it sends is that naturalized citizens don't have the same rights and stability as native-born citizens," Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, told the Times. "The government has used this power in the past to target people it views as political opponents."
In May, the Justice Department announced that it planned to take action against 12 individuals it had targeted for denaturalization.
Among those targeted was 48-year-old Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, who is wanted in Iraq for the 2006 murder of two police officers. Iraq has claimed that Al-Nouri was a leader in the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda at the time. According to the Justice Department, Al-Nouri illegally obtained his naturalization and lied under oath regarding his past.
The others are:
- Oscar Alberto Pelaez, 75, Colombia: Pelaez was a Colombian Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty in 2002 to thirteen counts of sexual assault against a child and two counts of oral copulation with a person younger than 18, and two counts of sodomy of a person under 18.
- Khalid Ouazzani, 48, Morocco: The Justice Department alleges that Ouazzani plotted to support Al-Qaida while living in the U.S. Within a year of being naturalized, the government alleges that Ouazzani had sent Al‑Qaida tens of thousands of dollars in financial support with money that he had fraudulently obtained. In May 2010, Ouazzani pleaded guilty to bank fraud, money laundering, and providing material support to Al-Qaida.
- Salah Osman Ahmed, 43, Somalia: The Justice Department alleges that just months after he naturalized, Ahmed began providing material support to terrorists. Ahmed traveled to Somalia to fight and kill Ethiopians and joined the terrorist group al-Shabaab. On July 28, 2009, he pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists.
- Baboucarr Mboob, 58, Gambia: Mboob is accused of participating in war crimes and concealing the information to become naturalized.
- Kevin Robin Suarez, 31, Bolivia: Suarez is accused of participating in a conspiracy to purchase firearms through straw purchasers for the eventual exportation of the firearms to Bolivia and other Latin American countries.
- Abduvosit Razikov, 46, Uzbekistan: Abduvosit Razikov, a native of Uzbekistan, paid a U.S. citizen to enter into a sham marriage with him so that he could procure permanent residency in the United States. In 2007, Razikov paid another U.S. citizen to enter into a sham marriage with Razikov's actual romantic partner so she could enter the United States from Uzbekistan. In 2012, after he was naturalized, Razikov engaged in a third sham marriage, this time marrying another Uzbekistani woman so she could obtain immigration benefits.
- Abdallah Osman Sheik, 28, Kenya: Abdallah Osman Sheikh, allegedly possessed indecent digital images of two minor individuals and posted an indecent digital image of one of them to his social media account before he was naturalized.
- Debashis Ghosh, 62, India: Before Debashis Ghosh naturalized, he conspired to defraud investors of $2.5 million intended for the construction of an aircraft maintenance facility. After naturalizing, Ghosh, continued the scheme.
- Pin He, 53, China: After he was ordered removed under the name Chun Di He in 1992, Pin He applied for an immigration benefit under a different identity. That application was successful, and he eventually obtained permanent residence.
- George Oyakhire, 66, Nigeria: Oyakhire naturalized under a false identity. Oyakhire , who was born in Nigeria, first entered the United States on October 18, 1986, using a visa issued in his true name, George Ofuan Oyakhire. The government alleges that Oyakhire last used the name "Oliver Bennett Oyakhire," on his naturalization application.
- Victor Manuel Rocha, 75, Colombia: Rocha was convicted of serving as an unregistered agent for the Republic of Cuba.
