The U.S. Department of Justice has filed denaturalization actions in various U.S. district courts against 12 individuals accused of serious offenses and obtaining citizenship through fraud.
The move signals a new focus by the Trump administration to revoke the citizenship status of immigrants accused or convicted of ties to terrorism, violent crimes, fraud, and other offenses.
The DOJ crackdown also follows a crime wave by naturalized citizens who have been arrested for committing heinous crimes in the United States. In April, 26-year-old Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a U.K.-born immigrant who was naturalized under President Joe Biden, was arrested and charged with murder in a random, violent crime spree in Georgia.
Nigerian immigrant Olaolukitan Adon Abel was convicted of multiple sexual assaults in 2025, given PROBATION and banned from the city of Savannah, GA.
Not deported and banned from America. City officials in Savannah, GA just made sure he would be someone else's problem. https://t.co/vrvFQHDGzz pic.twitter.com/rc5oQkEnBm
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) April 16, 2026
In addition, GOP lawmakers and Trump officials have pushed for the denaturalization of immigrants convicted of fraud in the wake of Minnesota’s ballooning fraud schemes tied to the Somali community.
The DOJ on Friday brought civil complaints or charges against 12 immigrants from Iraq, Somalia, China and India. They are accused of providing material support to a terrorist group, committing war crimes, and sexually abusing a minor, along with concealing their criminal histories or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process.
“Individuals implicated in committing fraud, heinous crimes such as sexual abuse, or expressing support for terrorism should never have been naturalized as United States citizens,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said when announcing the cases.
Historically, denaturalization hasn’t commonly been used for immigration enforcement.
But under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and certificate of naturalization canceled, if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
“The Trump administration is taking action to correct these egregious violations of our immigration system,” Blanche said. “Those who intentionally concealed their criminal histories or misrepresented themselves during the naturalization process will face the fullest extent of the law.”
Among the group, Iraqi Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 48, gained citizenship after saying he fled Iraq in 2009 because al Qaeda terrorists attacked his family, authorities said. In 2019, Iraq officials sought to extradite Ahmed to Iraq to face criminal charges for murder.
He allegedly murdered two Iraqi police officers in 2006 while a leader in al Qaeda, a detail he allegedly omitted from the U.S. government, the DOJ said.
In another case, Salah Osman Ahmed, 43, of Somalia, was naturalized in 2007 and pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support for terrorists and belonging to the terrorist group al-Shabab.
The DOJ alleged that joining a terrorist group within five years of naturalization would have “precluded him from citizenship” and Admed also “procured his naturalization by concealment of material facts or willful misrepresentation.”
Khalid Ouazzani, 48, a native of Morocco, is also suspected of terrorism ties. Ouazzani applied for U.S. citizenship in 2005 and naturalized in 2006, swearing his attachment to the principles of the U.S. Constitution.
In May 2010, Ouazzani pleaded guilty to bank fraud, money laundering and providing material support to Al-Qaida. The DOJ alleged “those oaths were false because as early as 2003, Kahlid was planning—with two men later convicted of trying to bomb the New York Stock exchange—ways to support Al‑Qaida.”
Victor Manuel Rocha, 75, is a native of Colombia who was convicted of serving as an unregistered agent for the Republic of Cuba. The DOJ has moved to revoke Rocha’s naturalization based on his admission in criminal proceedings that he began spying for Cuba in 1973 before he naturalized in 1978.
A 75-year-old Colombian Roman Catholic priest is another target of denaturalization. In 2002, Oscar Alberto Pelaez pleaded guilty to and was convicted of thirteen counts of sexual assault against a child.
The DOJ brought four claims against Pelaez seeking his denaturalization, including claims that he “lacked the good moral character to become a U.S. citizen and that he knowingly lied to immigration authorities.”
In 2005, Abduvosit Razikov, 46, a native of Uzbekistan, paid a U.S. citizen to enter into a sham marriage with him so that he could procure permanent residency in the United States.
Razikov is accused of immigration fraud and engaging in three sham marriages between 2005 and 2012, when he became a naturalized citizen.
“His unlawful acts and false testimony about those acts precluded him from establishing the good moral character required for naturalization,” DOJ officials said, adding he concealed or willfully misrepresented materials facts during the naturalization process.
Other cases involving using a fraudulent identity to naturalize. Pin He, 53, of China, was ordered removed under the name Chun Di He in 1992. Pin He applied for an immigration benefit the very next year under a different identity.
In 2013, He naturalized under the identity and immigration history of Pin He, without ever disclosing his prior removal order under the Chun Di He, authorities said.
Nigerian George Oyakhire, 66, also naturalized under a false identity. In 1988, Oyakhire obtained temporary resident status using a false name, “Oliver Bennett Oyakhire,” and a false date of birth. He became a naturalized citizen under the false name in 1996.
In the span of about 30 years, the DOJ filed about 305 denaturalization cases. When President Donald Trump first took office in 2017, the government brought 168 cases, Fox News Digital reported.
The push for denaturalization drastically dropped under President Joe Biden, who instead pushed open borders and did not make immigration enforcement a priority.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the DOJ is committed to “leveraging every tool available under the law to pursue those who obtain their U.S. citizenship unlawfully.”
“This Department of Justice continues to file denaturalization actions at record speeds to restore integrity in our naturalization process,” Shumate said. “The disturbing criminal histories confirm these individuals should have never received the privilege of U.S. citizenship.”
Neama Rahmani, a California-based former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital, that denaturalization is not an easy process.
Prosecutors must meet a high bar to denaturalize immigrants by proving with “clear and convincing” evidence that “material fraud” occurred during the naturalization process.
During a recent CBS News interview, Blanche warned that people “should be worried” if they obtained citizenship through “egregious lies or fraud.”
“I’m not sure why this is even controversial,” Blanche said of the denaturalization campaign. “We shouldn’t tolerate fraud. We shouldn’t tolerate lies.”
