The Immigration and Nationality Act was first passed by Congress in 1952 and was most recently amended in 1965. It establishes the guidelines for immigrants to become United States citizens. An applicant must be at least 18 years old, a lawful permanent resident with a Green Card, a resident of the United States for at least 5 years (3 years if married to a United States citizen), demonstrate good moral character, pass English and U.S. history tests, and take an oath of allegiance to uphold the Constitution of the United States at a swearing in ceremony. Naturalized citizens have the same rights and responsibilities as a native born citizen except one, they are not eligible to serve as President or Vice-President of the United States.
Naturalized citizenship can be revoked if a person hid or lied about their past when entering the United States or entered or remained in the United States illegally. Grounds for revocation of citizenship includes omissions as well as affirmative misrepresentations. It is not easy to revoke citizenship. In federal court the government must prove the naturalization was illegally obtained.
The Trump administration is threatening to reexamine applications for citizenship by naturalized Americans and has ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices to provide the Office of Immigration Litigation with between 100-200 denaturalization cases every month.
In the past, the denaturalization process focused on individuals who had ties to Nazi Germany or criminal syndicates, were accused of involvement in terrorist activities, or were victimized by racist Jim Crow laws. Radical activist Emma Goldman was denaturalized in 1919 and deported as an anarchist. Akhay Kumar Mozumdar,who was born in India, had his citizenship revoked in 1923 for claiming to be white. Laura Meneses, activist and wife of Puerto Rican Independence leader Padro Campos had her U.S. citizenship revoked in 1948. Mob boss Frank Costello had his citizenship revoked in 1959. The federal government also tried to strip citizenship from gangster Meyer Lansky but the process was never finalized. Over one hundred immigrants were denaturalized in the decades after World War II including John Demjanjuk who was denaturalized in 2002 because he was a Nazi concentration camp guard.
In this post I recommend the investigation of two people who should face denaturalization and deportation for illegally working in the United States before applying for a work permit and eventually becoming naturalized citizens. Elon Musk, age 54, was born in South Africa and entered the United States from Canada on a student visa in 1992. Melania Knauss Trump, age 55, was an immigrant from Slovenia who first entered the United States in 1996.
Elon Musk worked illegally in the U.S. in the mid-1990s after his student visa expired when he never enrolled in courses in Stanford University’s PhD program. Instead of pursuing a graduate degree, Musk co-founded and worked at Zip2 without legal authorization which violated immigration statutes which made him ineligible when he eventually applied for permanent residence and naturalized citizenship in 2002. Musk later acknowledged that he had worked in the United States without legal status. Elon Musk is the world’s richest person and a major financial backer of Donald Trump, but if the laws are the same for everybody, he should have his U.S. citizenship revoked and be deported.
Melania Knauss arrived in the U.S. in August 1996 on a B-1/B-2 visitor visa that permitted her to attend allowing business meetings but not to do paid work. Despite this restriction, Knauss worked on 10 modeling assignments and was paid $20,000 in September and October 1996 for clients including Fitness magazine and Bergdorf Goodman department store, before receiving a H-1B work visa. These paid modeling assignments were illegal employment under U.S. immigration law. In addition, the New York Post published photographs of Melania Trump from a photo shoot that that the photographer reported took place in the United States in 1995 for the French men’s magazine Max. Payment for this photo shoot would also have been illegal.
Ms. Knauss met and began dating Donald Trump in 1998 and they were married in 2005. She received a green card in March 2001 and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. Ms. Knauss, Now Mrs. Trump, is married to the President of the United States, but if the laws are the same for everybody, she should have her U.S. citizenship revoked and be deported.
