The Justice Department has escalated efforts this week to strip U.S. citizenship from individuals who obtained it through fraud, securing two denaturalizations and filing a third case tied to alleged marriage fraud.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the actions are part of a broader push to target migrants who concealed criminal conduct during the naturalization process, reports The Washington Examiner on Thursday.
"American citizenship is a sacred privilege, not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly," Bondi said.
On March 23, a federal judge revoked the citizenship of Vladimir Volgaev, a Ukrainian national convicted of smuggling firearm components and committing housing benefits fraud.
Prosecutors said Volgaev carried out a years-long scheme beginning in 2011 to export gun parts to foreign buyers while defrauding federal housing programs.
He became a U.S. citizen in 2016 but did not disclose his criminal activity, which the court found disqualified him from demonstrating the "good moral character" required for naturalization.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division said the ruling underscores the department's position.
"The United States provided Volgaev with safety, housing, and citizenship, and he returned those gains with malice, including by defrauding one of the federal agencies that provided him benefits," Shumate said.
"We will not reward this kind of behavior by allowing such an individual to retain U.S. citizenship that should not have been granted in the first place."
A day later, another federal judge revoked the citizenship of Mirelys Cabrera Diaz, a Cuban national convicted in 2019 of participating in a $6 million Medicare fraud scheme.
Court findings state Cabrera Diaz admitted she conspired to submit fraudulent prescription claims before becoming a citizen in 2017, including paying kickbacks to patient recruiters. The court determined her conduct prevented her from meeting naturalization requirements.
The department also filed a civil complaint against Alec Nasreddine Kassir, a Lebanese national accused of obtaining citizenship through a fraudulent marriage.
Prosecutors allege Kassir falsely claimed to be living with a U.S. citizen spouse during the required period and later admitted to passport fraud connected to his naturalization.
The renewed effort builds on a broader increase in denaturalization cases over the past decade.
Between 1990 and 2017, the Justice Department filed 305 such cases, averaging about 11 per year.
That pace rose during President Donald Trump's first term, when 168 cases were filed, or about 42 annually, compared with 64 cases, or roughly 16 per year, during former President Joe Biden's administration, according to a July Washington Post report.
Early figures from Trump's second term indicate the department has already secured roughly as many denaturalizations as were completed across all four years of the Biden administration, a Justice Department spokesperson said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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