Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Wednesday that Congress should streamline the process for denaturalizing and deporting naturalized citizens who lied on their citizenship applications or committed serious crimes.
Ogles told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE" that immigration remains "an 80/20 issue" with voters and argued that Congress must overhaul the immigration system established by the 1965 Hart-Celler Act.
"I have the Assimilation Act, which redoes the immigration framework," Ogles said. "After 1965, Hart-Celler was put into place and really creates this mess that has been abused, used and abused. There's fraud, H-1B visas, the chain migration. So that's part of it."
The ASSIMILATION Act would make sweeping changes to legal immigration, including raising the residency requirement for naturalization from five years to 10 years, expanding "good moral character" standards, increasing English-language requirements and revising birthright citizenship under federal law.
Ogles said Congress should also target naturalized citizens who "lied on their N-400," the federal application for naturalization, by moving denaturalization cases out of the Department of Justice and into the immigration agency to accelerate enforcement.
"So, we streamline the process," Ogles said. "If you're committing crimes, if you've been here in the last 10 years, you've committed a felony fraud, we're going to kick you out, and we move it from the DOJ to the naturalization immigration agency that handles this so they can expedite it.
"It becomes an administrative process versus a criminal. And that's how you do large numbers quickly."
Under current law, denaturalization generally requires the DOJ to file a civil action in federal court, where a judge determines whether a person's citizenship should be revoked. Although Ogles said he supports making the process administrative, the text of the ASSIMILATION Act focuses on tightening eligibility requirements for future naturalization rather than revising the judicial denaturalization process.
Ogles said the United States should return to a more restrictive, security-focused immigration system.
"If you come to this country and you don't love it, you shouldn't be here," Ogles said. "It's that simple. We get to decide who comes in, and we get to decide who leaves."
He added: "We should know who's coming in. There should be a background check. You should have to have a job before you get here."
Ogles also defended creating a task force to review asylum and refugee claims granted during the Biden administration.
"We need this task force that can expedite these individuals, get them denaturalized and get them deported," Ogles said. "We owe it to the American taxpayer."
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