The federal government is moving to denaturalize more than a dozen “criminal aliens” for allegedly lying about their past crimes, including child sexual abuse, fraud, and drug dealing, during the naturalization process.

Officials with the Justice Department told the Washington Examiner that the denaturalization actions, announced on Monday, are “unprecedented.”

The suspects include convicts originally from Somalia, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, and Jamaica who are accused of withholding information from immigration authorities that would have made them ineligible to receive citizenship.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized citizen’s U.S. citizenship may be revoked and the certificate of naturalization canceled if their naturalization was unlawfully procured or fraudulently obtained by the concealment of a material fact or through willful misrepresentation.

Among the defendants facing denaturalization proceedings is Leidys Delmas Garcia, a 54-year-old native of Cuba who was federally convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in 2023. Delmas Garcia pled guilty to co-operating 30 clinics in Florida that fraudulently billed commercial insurance provider Blue Cross, Blue Shield, approximately $36.7 million for physical therapy services that were not medically necessary or never provided.

Jean Claude Alfred, 68, of Haiti, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1994. Prosecutors say that beginning in September 1993, approximately one month before filing his naturalization application, Alfred repeatedly sexually abused his daughter, a minor, and continued to do so during the pendency of his naturalization proceedings. In 1996, a Florida jury convicted Alfred of attempted sexual battery upon a child in a familial or custodial relationship and lewd, lascivious, and indecent assault upon a child under the age of 16.

Andrea Marroquin, 44, is the daughter of a major Colombian drug trafficker who inherited his money when he died. According to authorities, Marroquin obtained permanent residence in the United States by concealing her bigamous marriage to a U.S. citizen, while already being married to another man, and then became a naturalized U.S. citizen herself in 2009. Per prosecutors, Marroquin conspired to engage in wire and bank fraud and money laundering between 2003 and 2011, using her late father’s drug money to finance fraudulent real estate transactions in Miami.

Maria Lourdes Montoya, 63, of Mexico, is accused of misrepresenting her husband’s identity to secure permanent residence and later U.S. citizenship. In support of both her application for permanent residence and naturalization, Montoya claimed to be the spouse of a U.S. citizen, Gilberto Montoya, but authorities say she was never married to that individual, who died decades earlier. Instead, she was the wife of Ernesto Orozco-Viramontes, a Mexican national who had assumed the identity of Gilberto Montoya, according to a five-count complaint filed against Maria Montoya. Montoya was allegedly aware of her husband’s deception and leveraged it to obtain immigration benefits.

Tahir Lekaj, 43, of Yugoslavia, was naturalized in 2005 after, under oath in his naturalization interview and application for U.S. citizenship, claiming that he had never committed a crime. Lejaj, however, was later convicted in a Connecticut court of two counts of sexually abusing a 10-year-old child back in 2003. 

Talman Harris, 49, of Jamaica, conspired over an eight-year period, including during his 2012-14 naturalization proceedings, to manipulate the prices and volume of shares of stock in publicly traded companies, causing a $39 million loss to investors. In 2016, an Ohio jury found Harris guilty of committing wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud for his role in the penny-stock scheme.

Armando Mendoza, 39, of Mexico, began acquiring sexually explicit images of minors as early as 2009. In his 2011 naturalization application and interview, however, Mendoza claimed that he had never committed a crime. In 2013, two years after he was naturalized, Mendoza pleaded guilty to receiving such exploitative material.

Neeraj Sharma, 50, of India, was the owner and chief executive officer of Magnavision LLC, an information technology staffing company located in New Jersey. Sharma signed and filed 11 fraudulent H-1B visa petitions. Each petition contained false representations that the visa beneficiaries would be employed with a global financial institution and included letters on official corporate letterhead bearing forged signatures of company executives. In 2017, Sharma became a naturalized citizen himself after allegedly falsely asserting that he had never committed a crime, given any U.S. government officials information or documentation that was false or misleading, or lied to gain immigration benefits. Sharma was subsequently convicted of fraud and visa misuse for the H-1B offenses dated between 2015 and 2017.

Federico Michel Fermin, 54, of the Dominican Republic, was convicted of conspiring to distribute more than $1.7 million in prescription drugs wholesale without a license. As part of the criminal conspiracy, Fermin altered drug packaging so that the prescription drugs, which were distributed to pharmacies, would appear to have been purchased from licensed individuals. Fermin, however, allegedly testified in his naturalization interview that he had never knowingly committed any crimes.

Abdikadir Ali Kadiye, 54, of Somalia, allegedly submitted applications for admission into the U.S. under two separate identities, first as Liban M. Degel and then as Abdikadir Ali Kadiye, after an immigration judge denied his initial application for immigration benefits. Authorities say that after his naturalization, Kadiye admitted to a Customs and Border Protection agent that he had previously used two different identities for entry purposes.

Victor San Shing Kwok, 50, of China, allegedly sought admission into the U.S. under the identity of Xin Cheng Guo before attempting to secure citizenship by marrying a U.S. citizen. In an application to adjust his resident status, Kwok allegedly failed to disclose the prior denial of his application as well as a pending order for his removal from the country. According to authorities, there is no record that Kwok ever departed the U.S. as ordered by an immigration judge.

Louise Hunkporti, 64, of Congo, faces eight counts of false representation for allegedly obtaining naturalization under a new adopted identity years after she was denied immigration relief. After Citizenship and Immigration Services digitized its paper fingerprint cards, the DOJ says authorities discovered that the fingerprints taken from when Hunkporti was naturalized in 2010 matched those she submitted when she first applied for U.S. citizenship in 1995.

Fernando Cristancho, 69, of Colombia, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, entered the U.S. as a religious worker and allegedly used his leadership position in the church to gain access to minor victims. Cristancho admitted to grooming and sexually abusing a parishioner from when the victim was 11 to 13 years old and pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement. The denaturalization complaint charges that Cristancho hid his then-ongoing crime, which resulted in a 22-year prison sentence, from immigration officials.

Ronnie Price, 40, of Trinidad and Tobago, pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a child who was under the age of 16. During his naturalization proceedings, however, Price allegedly insisted he never committed a crime.

Rodger George Gurdon, 55, of Jamaica, engaged in a conspiracy to steal and resell medical products from military hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and took part in another conspiracy to distribute at least 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds, of a substance containing marijuana. In 2013, after he was naturalized, Gurdon pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal pre-retail medical products, interstate receipt of stolen property, and conspiring to distribute marijuana, during the period in which he was statutorily required by U.S. immigration law to demonstrate good moral character.

Jheromell Obejera Arcilla, 39, of the Philippines, sexually abused the 15-year-old daughter of his biological cousin, whom he lived with at a Maryland residence. The sexual abuse lasted for over a year, during which time Arcilla successfully naturalized. Arcilla is accused of lying about the commission of this crime against a child in connection with his naturalization application.

Milagros Marileisis Acosta Torres, 40, of Cuba, allegedly took part in a conspiracy to defraud a tribal casino in Florida. Authorities say that her husband and several others stole millions of dollars from the casino by creating false credit vouchers, and Acosta Torres carried out various financial transactions involving the criminal proceeds to disguise their fraudulent activity and to circumvent reporting requirements. But in her naturalization petition, Acosta Torres allegedly denied ever engaging in criminal conduct.

“When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences,” acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters. Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process.”

“American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. “If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege. DHS will not stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals including sex offenders, perpetrators of fraud, and drug traffickers who have exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system. We will continue to use every lawful avenue to denaturalize and remove aliens.”