Federal Government Makes Denaturalization Push for Criminals
Once an individual who was qualified and has taken the oath to become a naturalized American citizen, it was very rare that their United States citizenship would ever be an issue. However, in recent months, the Trump Administration has sought to have the citizenship of certain criminal defendants revoked. Just this month the Department of Justice announced that it had had filed 40 civil lawsuits seeking to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Americans between August 21 and October 2, the largest batch of denaturalization complaints of President Trump’s second term. In one case, Cyril Domaquik Clemens, a 72-year-old Liberian native, was naturalized in 2021 but subsequently plead guilty to sexually abusing a minor for over a decade prior to his naturalization. The judge in his case, on the basis that he lied on his naturalization/immigration paperwork about his pattern of abusing a minor child, sentenced him to time served, revoked his citizenship, and entered a judicial order of removal directing him to leave the country at his own expense. The current surge traces to a memorandum from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate directing the Civil Division to prioritize denaturalization, directing the department to pursue revocation aggressively whenever the evidence and the law support it, with high priorities to those charged with committing terrorism, war crimes, gang membership, violent crime, financial fraud against the government, and material misrepresentations in the naturalization process.
Not Confined to Criminal Defendants
While many of the cases revolve around individuals charged or accused of committing other very serious criminal matters, in one case, federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint seeking to revoke the citizenship of Emmanuel Tayo Akinkunmi, a Nigerian-born Chicago resident who was originally naturalized in June 2011, who has not been accused of what many might consider to be among the most serious crimes. According to the complaint, Akinkunmi held lawful permanent resident status in 1993 under a different name, Ezekiel Aremu Adetayo, which he allegedly abandoned after he was subject to a deportation and then obtained a second green card under his current name and eventually applied for citizenship. Notably, the complaint does not allege any crime of violence, terrorism, or gang related crime but do fall into the bucket related to misrepresentations in the naturalization process itself. While an outlier at the moment, the current administration has made clear through its policies, rhetoric, and actions that it views naturalized citizenship as reviewable, even decades after an individual has been naturalized. If you are a naturalized citizen and you are under investigation, have been charged with a crime, or have been contacted by federal immigration authorities about your citizenship application, contact an criminal defense attorney who can help you navigate these issues.
