US Moves To Revoke Citizenship Of 40 Naturalised Americans Accused Of Lying
The US Justice Department has filed cases seeking to revoke the citizenship of 40 naturalised Americans accused of lying, concealing crimes or using false identities during their immigration and naturalisation processes.
The complaints were filed in federal courts between August 21 and October 2. The department described the filings as the largest number of denaturalisation complaints submitted during a single period under the Trump administration.
Under US immigration law, citizenship obtained through fraud can be revoked if the government proves that it was illegally obtained or that the applicant concealed a material fact or deliberately provided false information during the naturalisation process.
The 40 cases involve allegations ranging from espionage and sexual offences to immigration, identity, tax and marriage fraud.
One of the cases involves Jinchao Wei, a Chinese national who joined the US Navy in 2021 and became an American citizen in 2022 through an expedited military naturalisation process. The Justice Department alleges that he was already involved in a conspiracy to sell US military secrets to China. Wei was convicted of espionage-related offences in 2025 and sentenced to 200 months in prison.
Another case concerns Ping Li, whom the department accuses of acting as an undeclared agent of China's Ministry of State Security. Prosecutors say Li gathered information on Chinese dissidents, pro-democracy activists and US-based organisations. He pleaded guilty in 2024 to acting as an agent of the Chinese government without notifying the US attorney general.
Several other cases involve allegations that applicants concealed serious sexual offences committed before they became US citizens, including alleged sexual abuse of minors and aggravated sodomy against a man with special needs.
The department has also targeted people accused of concealing previous deportation orders, using multiple identities, entering fraudulent marriages or misrepresenting their criminal histories.
Some alleged deception dates back decades. The Justice Department says Gume Roberto Garza, a Mexican national, used the identity and personal details of a US citizen, including the person's Social Security number and date of birth, before eventually obtaining US citizenship.
Ahmad Bahar Khattak, a Pakistani national, is accused of using multiple identities over several decades to avoid deportation and obtain immigration benefits. The department says he was ordered excluded from the US in 1994 under another identity but later became a citizen in 2008 without disclosing that history.
Other complaints allege that applicants concealed existing marriages or falsely claimed to be divorced or widowed to obtain immigration benefits and eventually citizenship.
Attorney General Todd Blanche described the filings as the largest denaturalisation effort in modern US history, while Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the department would continue pursuing cases where it believes citizenship was obtained through deception.
The cases are civil denaturalisation proceedings, meaning the allegations must still be established in court. The Justice Department is asking federal judges to revoke the naturalisation of the individuals named in the complaints.
The cases were filed in federal courts in California, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia.