Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia is pushing a new approach in Congress: if a person becomes an American through naturalization and later commits terrorism, should the United States be able to take that citizenship back and deport them?
Moore says yes. He announced plans Thursday to introduce legislation that would allow the federal government to denaturalize and deport naturalized citizens who commit or support terrorism. Moore called it a “horrific pattern” that “must end.”
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What the bill would do
Moore said his proposal would allow the U.S. to denaturalize and deport any naturalized citizen who commits an act of terror, plots to unleash terror, joins a terrorist group, or otherwise aids and abets terrorism.
Reps. Brandon Gill of Texas and Randy Fine of Florida quickly said they would support the bill.
Incidents cited
Moore’s announcement followed what Fox News described as a recent string of attacks tied to naturalized citizens, along with one case involving the children of naturalized citizens. The cases cited include:
An alleged attempt by Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon, to ram a vehicle into a Michigan synagogue filled with children and teachers.
A shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone, allegedly opened fire on a class of ROTC students, killing Lt. Col. Brandon Shah.
An alleged plot in New York City where Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi,the children of naturalized citizens from Turkey and Afghanistan, allegedly attempted to bomb an anti-Islam demonstration outside the mayor’s mansion.
A shooting in Austin attributed to Ndiaga Diagne, a Senegalese-born naturalized citizen, that left three people dead and injured over a dozen.
Under current laws, the U.S. government may strip citizenship from a naturalized individual only in very limited circumstances, such as when it was obtained through fraud. The Fox News report also notes there is a very high standard of proof on the government to show that fraud occurred during the process of obtaining citizenship.
The SCAM Act
After this week’s attacks, Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri renewed his call to pass another bill: the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act.
Schmitt posted on X that “after the SAVE America Act, we must pass the SCAM Act so we can denaturalize & deport those who are here to hurt Americans. We must denaturalize those who shouldn't be here.” In another post, he emphasized, “we need to give the Trump admin the SCAM Act. Under current law, it is practically impossible to denaturalize these terrorists.”
Schmitt is the Senate sponsor of the SCAM Act. If passed, the bill would expand and clarify grounds for denaturalization if an individual participates in fraud against a government program, joins a terrorist organization, or is convicted of an aggravated felony or espionage.
As described in the report, the SCAM Act would also expand the government’s ability to denaturalize by allowing it to revoke citizenship from a person who engages in terrorism, commits fraud, commits espionage, or commits felonies within 10 years of becoming a citizen.
The bill was introduced in the House in January by Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota amid widespread outrage over the rampant Medicaid and children’s services fraud scandal, which the report says heavily involved the Somali immigrant community.
Schmitt said the SCAM Act “will allow the Trump admin to denaturalize and deport those who should never have been granted citizenship in the first place.”
The bottom line
Moore’s planned bill would target denaturalization and deportation for naturalized citizens who commit or support terrorism. Schmitt and other Republicans are also pressing the SCAM Act, which would broaden the grounds for denaturalization beyond the narrow, fraud-centered framework described in the report.