There are few remedies for removing foreign nationals who committed violent crimes, joined terrorist groups, or engaged in large-scale fraud after they became American citizens, lawmakers noted at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Ken Cuccinelli, a former acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, pointed to two key cases that he said show the current law isn’t working, in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

In March of this year, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone, opened fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University, where he killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, an ROTC leader. In 2017, Jalloh pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State. He was reportedly sentenced to 11 years in prison but released early after completing a drug treatment program.

“Despite his terrorism conviction, Jalloh was never denaturalized and deported. Under current law, terrorism is prima facie evidence of fraudulent procurement only within five years of naturalization,” Cuccinelli said. “Because Jalloh’s conduct fell outside that window, the government had no clear path to remove him. A brave American soldier died because of that gap.”

Cuccinelli brought up another example: Mirsad Ramic, a Bosnian national who became a naturalized citizen and lived in Kentucky before he was convicted last year of providing material support to the Islamic State terrorist group.

“We must act on multiple fronts, strengthen the front end, so adjudicators conduct meaningful inquiries, and every applicant is thoroughly tested for hostility to American principles,” Cuccinelli said.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., the subcommittee chairman, sponsored the SCAM Act, short for “Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation.” In other cases, he noted, naturalized citizens joined the Islamic State terrorist group or al-Qaeda or joined a drug trafficking cartel.

More here

Tagged: Border BACK TO HOMEPAGE