First Man Stripped Of U.S. Citizenship In Immigration Crackdown

CARTERET, NJ — The administration of President Donald Trump is currently investigating thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens who federal prosecutors say may have erroneously been granted citizenship or are suspected of lying to receive coveted American citizenship. And a Carteret man originally from India has become the first person to be stripped of his U.S. citizenship as part of the crackdown.

On Jan. 5, federal Judge Stanley R. Chesler in New Jersey stripped Baljinder Singh of his status as a naturalized U.S. citizen and reduced him to a lawful permanent resident. His new status means he can be subject to deportation proceedings.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, which announced the Singh case in this press release, Singh, 43, a native of India, arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Sept. 25, 1991, without any travel documents or proof of identity. He claimed his name was Davinder Singh. He was placed in exclusion proceedings but failed to appear for his immigration court hearing and was ordered to be deported Jan. 7, 1992.

Four weeks later, on Feb. 6, he filed an asylum application under the name Baljinder Singh. He claimed to be an Indian who entered the United States without inspection. Singh abandoned that application after he married a U.S. citizen, who filed a visa petition on his behalf. Singh was naturalized under the name Baljinder Singh July 28, 2006. Singh has been residing in Carteret, New Jersey.

Singh's case was the first denaturalization under Operation Janus, an initiative led by the Department of Homeland Security to investigate and prosecute fraudulent immigration. Operation Janus started in 2010 under then-President Barack Obama, and has been continued in the Trump administration, said Katie Tichacek, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) NYC and Northern NJ division.

It is not known why the first arrest came seven years after the inception of the operation.

So far, USCIS says Operation Janus has identified 315,000 suspect citizenship approvals, most of them involving missing fingerprint data. That raised concerns that applicants may have tried to hide possible criminal records or avoid other background checks, according to the report. Read more about here: https://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets... It was also in September that the federal government filed the complaint against Singh. Two other complaints were filed in September against naturalized U.S. citizens born in Pakistan, who live in Florida and Connecticut.

“I hope this case, and those to follow, send a loud message that attempting to fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship will not be tolerated," said USCIS Director Francis Cissna said. Cissna was appointed by Trump.

Cissna said his department has 1,600 cases similar to Singh's lined up for prosecution.

Top image via Pixabay/middle photo via the U.S. government