The Justice Department under the Trump administration escalated its efforts this week to strip citizenship from individuals in the United States who obtained it through fraud, securing two denaturalizations this week and filing a third case tied to alleged marriage fraud.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the actions reflect a broader push by the Trump administration to target migrants who concealed criminal conduct during the naturalization process. “American citizenship is a sacred privilege — not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly,” Bondi said.
The latest court-secured denaturalization came on March 23, when a judge revoked the citizenship of Vladimir Volgaev, a Ukrainian national convicted of smuggling firearm components and committing housing benefits fraud. Prosecutors said Volgaev engaged in a yearslong scheme beginning in 2011 to export gun parts to foreign buyers while also defrauding federal housing programs. He became a U.S. citizen in 2016 but failed to disclose his criminal activity, which the court found disqualified him from demonstrating the “good moral character” required for naturalization.
“This case sends a clear message,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “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. 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, a separate federal judge revoked the citizenship of Mirelys Cabrera Diaz, a Cuban national convicted in 2019 of participating in a $6 million Medicare fraud scheme. According to court findings, Cabrera Diaz admitted she conspired to submit fraudulent prescription claims before becoming a citizen in 2017, including paying kickbacks to patient recruiters. The court concluded her conduct barred her from meeting naturalization requirements.
The DOJ has also filed a civil complaint against Alec Nasreddine Kassir, a Lebanese national accused of securing citizenship through a sham 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 tied to his naturalization.
The renewed push builds on a broader rise in denaturalization efforts over the past decade. Between 1990 and 2017, the DOJ filed 305 such cases, averaging about 11 per year.
DOJ TELLS PROSECUTORS TO SEEK DENATURALIZATION FOR CERTAIN CRIMINALS
That pace increased during Trump’s first term, when 168 cases were filed, roughly 42 annually, compared to 64 cases, or about 16 per year, during the Biden administration, according to a July Washington Post report.
Early figures from Trump’s second term suggest the department has already secured roughly as many denaturalizations as were completed across all four years of the Biden administration, a DOJ spokesperson said.