Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Tuesday called for amendments to national immigration law to make committing fraud a deportable offense or grounds for stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans.
"What we would do is amend the Nationality and Immigration Act and make certain that all fraud, not only fraud above $10,000, but all fraud that is committed against the U.S. taxpayer and our government would be deemed as a deportable or a denaturalization offense," the Tennessee Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
Blackburn said the proposal is meant to consolidate what she described as "scattered portions of fraud" in current law.
"It is not explicit that all fraud is deemed this way," she said.
The measure would also affect detention and venue, said Blackburn.
"It would allow these individuals, once they're apprehended, to be held until their hearing," she said, while also allowing "any court, not just an immigration court, but any court, to hear these cases."
Blackburn tied the effort to Minnesota, where hosts referenced a federal enforcement surge and what they called "overwhelming fraud" that recently surfaced.
"The American people have looked at what has happened in Minnesota with billions of dollars of fraud," she said, adding that whistleblowers elsewhere have flagged alleged fraud in daycare centers, elder care, healthcare, and other programs.
Asked how denaturalization works, Blackburn said that "there is a process through the NIA that you can be denaturalized, and what this does is to make certain that fraud is explicit in one of those portions."
The interview also touched on a lawsuit that has been filed by Minnesota against the federal government over the surge of immigration officers to the state.
"Trump Derangement Syndrome is alive and well in Minnesota," she said. "We are certainly seeing that our ICE agents are there doing their job."
Blackburn added that ICE is apprehending violent criminals.
"You can go to the ICE website," she said. "You can look at some of the rap sheets on these individuals, child sexual assault, molestation, aggravated assault, murder, rape, and other violent crimes."
On Capitol Hill, Blackburn said she did not expect a government shutdown as lawmakers work on spending bills.
"We will not have another shutdown," she said. "The House has passed this three-bill omnibus. The Senate will move forward with the minibus [and] will pass it before the end of the week."
She said the House would move additional spending bills the following week and framed the process as a reset from prior spending levels.
"What this does, by passing these appropriations bills, is get us off of a Biden budget and onto a Trump budget," Blackburn said.
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