Indian Man Loses U.S. Citizenship, Becomes First Case of Denaturalization Under Trump

A naturalized American citizen of Indian origin is the first person to be stripped of his citizenship under the Donald Trump administration that is on a mission to deport illegal immigrants. The Indian man, Baljinder Singh, received citizenship fraudulently, according to the authorities.

Singh, a 43-year-old resident of Carteret, New Jersey, had married a U.S. citizen and received citizenship in 2006. His status has now been reverted to be a green card holder and that makes him open to deportation based on the Department of Homeland Security’s discretion, the Justice Department said.

According to the petition filed by the Department of Justice in September 2017, Singh had concealed prior orders of exclusion and his deportation that were passed against him, and assumed a different identity that was used for naturalization in his citizenship application.

“Singh’s denaturalization is the first arising out of a growing body of cases referred to the Department of Justice by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as part of Operation Janus,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

“The defendant exploited our immigration system and unlawfully secured the ultimate immigration benefit of naturalization, which undermines both the nation’s security and our lawful immigration system,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department will continue to use every tool to protect the integrity of our nation’s immigration system, including the use of civil denaturalization.”

Singh had come to San Francisco in 1991 without travel documents or proof of identity. He said his name was Davinder Singh. He was ordered to be deported in January 1992 after he missed exclusion proceedings. In February 1992, he filed for asylum under the name of Baljinder Singh, which he then abandoned after getting married. He had said that he entered the United States without inspection.

Two cases of individuals from Pakistan were also brought to the court under Operation Janus, which was launched to investigate cases where citizenship was obtained despite faulty documentation. “A Department of Homeland Security initiative, Operation Janus identified about 315,000 cases where some fingerprint data was missing from the centralized digital fingerprint repository. Among those cases, some may have sought to circumvent criminal record and other background checks in the naturalization process. These cases are the result of an ongoing collaboration between the two departments to investigate and seek denaturalization proceedings against those who obtained citizenship unlawfully,” the Justice Department statement said.