The Trump administration announced denaturalization proceedings against 10 naturalized citizens convicted of crimes ranging from child sex abuse to nearly $900,000 in Medicare fraud, part of what officials call the largest effort to revoke fraudulently obtained citizenship in American history.
The Department of Justice filed civil complaints in federal court against all 10 individuals within a 30-day window, targeting naturalized citizens from Cuba, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, and Poland who allegedly concealed serious criminal conduct during the citizenship application process. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin jointly announced the actions Monday, framing them as a direct strike against people who exploited the immigration system to gain rights they never legally deserved.
The cases read like a catalog of the worst abuses the naturalization process was designed to screen out: a fake medical clinic billing taxpayers for bogus prescriptions, priests who sexually abused children in their own congregations, a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, and identity fraud schemes built on purchased documents. Each defendant obtained U.S. citizenship while hiding conduct that, under federal law, should have disqualified them on the grounds of lacking "good moral character."
The most financially damaging case involves Yoskmaikel Rodriguez Perez, a 45-year-old Cuban native who became a naturalized citizen in 2018. The New York Post reported that Rodriguez Perez was convicted in January 2020 of running a fake medical center in Miami that fraudulently billed Medicare more than $886,694. Court filings describe the scheme as funneling "unnecessary prescriptions to HHAs [Home Health Agencies], pharmacies, and patient recruiters", a paper mill designed to siphon taxpayer money through the health care system.
The DOJ filed its denaturalization action against Rodriguez Perez on July 18. Administration officials described the case as one of the first attempts to strip citizenship from a health care fraudster, a signal that the government views denaturalization not just as an immigration enforcement tool but as a way to hold criminals accountable for gaming multiple federal systems at once.
The broader immigration crackdown has already produced measurable economic effects. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that Trump's enforcement push is putting Americans back to work as real wages climb, a point that gains sharper focus when taxpayers learn their Medicare dollars funded a convicted fraudster's fake clinic.
Two of the 10 cases involve former Catholic priests convicted of crimes against minors. Urbano Vazquez Ortega, a Mexican native who became a naturalized citizen in 2017, is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for second-degree child sex abuse. Court filings state that Ortega "sexually abused minor females from his congregation" at Sacred Heart Shrine in Washington, D.C., groping their breasts and buttocks and putting "his tongue in the mouth" of one victim. The abuse occurred before, during, and after his naturalization, meaning he took the citizenship oath while actively victimizing children in his care. The DOJ filed its denaturalization action against Ortega on July 10.
Martin Stanislaw Garbacz, a 47-year-old Polish native who became a citizen in 2014, compiled an even longer rap sheet during his years as a priest. He was convicted on 65 counts of stealing more than $250,000 from three Catholic parishes while serving in Rapid City, South Dakota, between 2012 and 2019. Beyond the theft, Garbacz was convicted of filming a 17-year-old male in a hotel shower during a parish trip to Krakow, Poland. A federal court sentenced him to 117 months in prison in 2022. The DOJ filed its denaturalization action on July 6.
These are not ambiguous cases. These are convicted criminals who hid their conduct from immigration authorities, swore a false oath, and obtained the full rights of American citizenship while preying on the communities that welcomed them.
Omar Cantu-Montalvo, a 44-year-old Mexican native, became a citizen in 2005 and was convicted in 2016 of conspiring to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. He served a 100-month sentence. The DOJ filed its denaturalization complaint on June 15, the earliest of the 10 filings.
The remaining cases span a range of fraud and violence. Ceflo Luviano-Mojica, also a Mexican native, faces denaturalization for lying on his application about prior arrests for grand theft and concealing a firearm. Murtaza Ali, a Pakistani native, allegedly filed false applications for immigration benefits under a fake name. Antonio Alcantara-Ruiz, a Mexican native, is accused of buying counterfeit identification documents to obtain a permanent residency card and then using it to apply for citizenship, building his entire legal status on forged paper.
Public support for removing criminal illegal immigrants has grown sharply, even among voters who typically oppose aggressive enforcement. A recent Harvard/Harris poll showed Democratic support for deporting criminal illegal immigrants surged eight points in a single month, a shift that suggests the political ground beneath these cases is more solid than critics acknowledge.
Three more defendants, Jimmy Aguero, a Peruvian native; Francisco Montano, a Mexican native; and Martin Garcia Cardiel, also a Mexican native, face denaturalization proceedings for child sex crimes. The DOJ did not provide specific filing dates for their cases in its announcement.
Acting Attorney General Blanche framed the 10 cases as the opening wave of a sustained campaign. The Washington Examiner reported that the Trump administration has moved to denaturalize more than 56 individuals in its first two years, compared to 64 total during the entire Biden administration. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate put it bluntly: "We've only scratched the surface. Many more complaints are coming."
Blanche laid out the legal rationale in direct terms:
"Each of these individuals lacked the good moral character required by law and procured citizenship through willful misrepresentations and concealment of their crimes. Under President Trump's leadership, this Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue denaturalization to restore integrity to America's naturalization process."
Secretary Mullin echoed the point, calling the 10 defendants "drug traffickers, pedophiles, and fraudsters" who "exploited our immigration system, harming real U.S. citizens." He added that DHS is "committed to ensuring we denaturalize and remove these fraudsters with every tool at our disposal."
The administration has backed those words with institutional muscle. Breitbart reported that the administration reassigned USCIS attorneys to Justice Department offices specifically to accelerate denaturalization caseloads. Officials have shortlisted 385 people for potential denaturalization charges, and the DOJ filed 12 cases in a single month earlier this year. FBI Director Kash Patel has called for "stronger legislation" to expand the government's ability to strip citizenship from those who obtained it through fraud.
For decades, denaturalization was a seldom-used legal tool. AP News reported that federal courts handled just over 300 total denaturalization cases between 1990 and 2017, roughly 11 per year over nearly three decades. The Trump administration created a dedicated DOJ section focused on these cases during its first term, and the current push has expanded that infrastructure dramatically.
A DOJ memo issued in June outlined 10 categories for denaturalization and instructed department attorneys to "prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence." Newsmax noted that in civil denaturalization proceedings, defendants are not entitled to a government-appointed attorney and must hire their own counsel, a procedural detail that immigration advocates have flagged as a concern.
Immigration attorney Matthew Hoppock told AP News that "most Americans would support the idea of stripping someone of citizenship if they got it through fraud and they are also a dangerous person," though he also raised questions about whether the administration might eventually "target these politically" or "start combing through people's immigration files if they don't like you."
That concern deserves an honest answer, and the 10 cases announced Monday provide one. A man who ran a fake Medicare clinic. Two priests who molested children. A cocaine trafficker who moved five kilograms. A man who bought forged documents to build his entire immigration file from scratch. Whatever debate exists about the outer edges of denaturalization authority, these cases sit squarely in the center of what the law was written to address.
The administration has paired its denaturalization push with broader enforcement measures. President Trump recently signed a nearly $70 billion immigration enforcement bill that locks in ICE and Border Patrol funding through the end of his term, ensuring the agencies tasked with carrying out removals have the resources to follow through.
Just The News confirmed the DOJ's actions against all 10 individuals, noting that the defendants' prior convictions and pending charges formed the evidentiary backbone of each civil complaint. The cases proceed through federal court, where the government must prove that each defendant obtained citizenship through fraud or concealment.
The enforcement apparatus now extends beyond courtrooms. ICE detention and removal operations continue to expand, with cases like a Canadian visa overstay who allegedly assaulted a pro-Trump teen illustrating the breadth of the current crackdown.
Citizenship earned through fraud is not citizenship. It is a lie with a certificate attached, and stripping it away is not punishment but correction.