Senate Seeks Pathway to Deportation for Naturalized Criminals

There are few remedies for removing foreign nationals who committed violent crimes, joined terrorist groups, or engaged in large-scale fraud after they became American citizens, lawmakers noted at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Ken Cuccinelli, a former acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pointed to two key cases that he said show the current law isn’t working, in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

In March of this year, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone, opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University, where he killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, an ROTC leader. In 2017, Jalloh pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State. He was reportedly sentenced to 11 years in prison but released early after completing a drug treatment program.

“Despite his terrorism conviction, Jalloh was never denaturalized and deported. Under current law, terrorism is prima facie evidence of fraudulent procurement only within five years of naturalization,” Cuccinelli said. “Because Jalloh’s conduct fell outside that window, the government had no clear path to remove him. A brave American soldier died because of that gap.”

Cuccinelli brought up another example of Mirsad Ramic, a Bosnian national who became naturalized citizen and lived in Kentucky before he was convicted last year of providing material support to the Islamic State terrorist group.

“We must act on multiple fronts, strengthen the front end, so adjudicators conduct meaningful inquiries, and every applicant is thoroughly tested for hostility to American principles,” Cuccinelli said.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., the subcommittee chairman, sponsored the SCAM Act, short for “Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation.” In other cases, he noted, naturalized citizens joined the Islamic State terrorist group or al-Qaeda, or joined a drug trafficking cartel.

“If a man takes the oath of allegiance and then joins ISIS, the fraud likely began long before the battlefield,” Schmitt said Wednesday. “If the man swears attachment to the Constitution, then spies for a foreign country, the betrayal likely began before the indictment. If a man claims good, moral character and then steals millions from the American people, the lie may have been present at naturalization.”

He said his bill would make it easier to denaturalize and remove immigrants who naturalized into the country and then committed a felony.

“We need a serious nationwide denaturalization effort against fraudsters, felons, terrorists, spies, and anyone who obtained American citizenship by deceit,” Schmitt said. “If the government never revokes citizenship obtained by fraud, the oath becomes theater. The application becomes a game.”

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, noted she was the only naturalized citizen on the panel and said Republicans were going after legal immigrants.

“This has never been about law and order for the Republicans. This is all about getting immigrants. It’s about terrorizing communities,” Hirono said. She added, “As a naturalized citizen, I’m proud of it. I can’t think of a more undemocratic, un-American thing to do, to someone who chooses to become a U.S. citizen, to hold this over their heads.”

Schmitt later shot back that Hirono was lying and using scare tactics.

“If you take advantage of taxpayers … if you commit a terrorist act, if you commit wholesale welfare fraud, within 10 years, you’re damn right we’re deporting you, if you’re convicted,” Schmitt said.

In recent months, three naturalized U.S. citizens murdered or attempted to murder Americans, an immigration law expert told the Senate panel Wednesday.

“It strains credibility to assert that when naturalized, they had met the requirement of being of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States,” George Fishman, senior legal fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, told the subcommittee.

“Why does it matter that they were naturalized? Naturalized citizens are not subject to deportation,” Fishman added. “They can serve in Congress, can vote in federal elections, and have an unfettered ability to work for the federal government.”

Denaturalization should only be applied to conduct before taking the oath of citizenship, not after, Peter Spiro, a professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

“Naturalization, once conferred, should not be taken away without the clearest sort of justification and proof,” Spiro told the subcommittee. “Denaturalization can only be triggered by circumstances incident to the naturalization application itself. There is no projecting forward of naturalization requirements, or an individual possesses the status to work qualifications for naturalization at the time of naturalization.”