The Department of Justice is moving to strip U.S. citizenship from two people from Arizona who prosecutors say lied or committed fraud to obtain citizenship.
The two people from Arizona are among 40 people across the country the U.S. Department of Justice filed denaturalization actions against in multiple federal courts as part of the Trump administration's rapidly expanding effort to strip citizenship from people who committed fraud or committed crimes.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the move to strip citizenship of the 40 people, including two from Arizona, "marks the largest denaturalization effort in modern history."
The 40 individuals include people accused of acting as an agent for a foreign government, committing voluntary manslaughter
and aggravated sodomy against a special-needs man, the Justice Department said.
"From an individual convicted of espionage to others convicted of sexual offenses against minors, these defendants concealed critical facts from the U.S. government and represent serious criminal offenders," Blanche said in a written statement.
On Sept. 18, the federal prosecutors filed denaturalization action in U.S. District Court of Arizona against Gilbert Barraza, 58, an immigrant from Mexico living in Arizona.
The complaint alleges that Barraza entered the United States illegally in 1987 and applied for a U.S. passport in 1992, falsely claiming to have been born in the country, according to the Justice Department.
He submitted a forged California birth certificate, the Justice Department said. Later, he married a U.S. citizen and used the marriage to become a permanent resident of the U.S. eventually becoming a U.S. citizen in 2008 by "concealing and lying about his passport fraud," the Justice Department said.
"The United States seeks Barraza's denaturalization because he was not lawfully admitted for permanent residence and made numerous material misstatements to obtain his U.S. citizenship," the Justice Department said in a written statement.
On Sept. 30, federal prosecutors filed a denaturalization complaint against Gracia de Rodriguez, 52, an immigrant from Mexico living in Arizona.
Gracia de Rodriguez lied to U.S. government officials about her spouse's identity and citizenship over a 20-year period, falsely claiming he was a U.S. citizen to obtain immigration benefits, U.S. citizenship and a U.S. passport, the Justice Department said.
In June 2019, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to passport fraud in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, the Justice Department said.
In her criminal proceedings, she admitted that she obtained her U.S. passport through fraudulent procurement of her naturalization, the Justice Department said.
She admitted that her spouse was a Mexican citizen, not a U.S. citizen, who she married in Mexico. She also admitted that she and her spouse later illegally entered the country, where her spouse stole the identify of a U.S. citizen, the Justice Department said.
She admitted that she "knowingly and willfully" married her spouse a second time in the United States under his stolen identify and then used her spouse's stolen identify to adjust her status to that of a lawful permanent resident and later to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In May, the U.S. Justice Department also filed a civil complaint in federal court that seeks to denaturalize Ali Yousif Ahmed, a 48-year-old Arizona resident who the Iraqi government sought in the past claiming that he participated in the murder of two Iraqi police officers in 2006 as a leader in al-Qaida.
The complaint states that Ahmed "lied under oath about his criminal and family history" when he sought admission into the United States and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to a Justice Department statement.
Daniel Gonzalez covers immigration. Reach him at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @azdangonzalez.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Justice Dept. moves to strip US citizenship from 2 people in Arizona
