procurement in the denaturalization statute. Notwithstanding that the Court has decided few denaturalization cases
since the effective date of the 1961 amendment, the
Fedorenko case is the first indication in several decades that
the Court will countenance the denaturalization of a citizen
based solely on the ground of illegal procurement.”).
219. According to the civil statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1451,
subsection (e), upon criminal conviction, the court must
“declare the certificate of naturalization of such person to be
canceled.” If the offender is a birthright citizen, then this is a
complete defense against denaturalization, however the
person may still be imprisoned.
220. Comment, Denaturalization of Nazi War Criminals: Is
There Sufficient Justice for Those Who Would Not Dispense
Justice, 40 Md. L. Rev. 39, 46-47 (1981).
221. 18 U.S.C. § 3291.
222. Maslenjak v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1918 (2017) Nikki
Marquez & Eric Cohen, Denaturalization – Understanding
the Process and Recent Increases in Denaturalization Efforts,
ILRC, at 8 (Dec. 2018), https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/
files/resources/denaturalization_und_prcs_rcnt_effrts-20181221.pdf.
223. For instance, the Ninth Circuit read the statue to
require “materiality in order for misrepresentation to be
contrary to law,” United States v. Puerta, 982 F.2d 1297, 1301
(9th Cir. 1992); whereas the Southern District of New York
did not require materiality, United States v. Rogers, 898 F.
Supp. 219, 220-21 (S.D.N.Y. 1995).
224. Maslenjak v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1918, 1925, 198 L.
Ed. 2d 460 (2017)
225. Id. The court remanded the case and the Sixth
Circuit held oral arguments on October 3, 2018. See Audio
tape: United States v. Divna Maslenjak (Oct. 3, 2018), https://
www.courtlistener.com/audio/58819/united-states-v-divna-maslenjak/. At the time of writing, the Sixth Circuit has
not decided the matter.
226. Cassandra Burke Robertson and Irina D. Manta, (Un)
Civil Denaturalization, 94 New York University Law
Review 402, 446 (2019), https://www.nyulawreview.org/
wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NYULawReview-94-3-RobertsonMantapdf.pdf (critiquing the court’s
textual approach to the phenomenon of denaturalizations,
rather than confronting broader constitutional questions
raised by their existence and operation).
227. Id. The court remanded the case and the Sixth
Circuit held oral arguments on October 3, 2018. See Audio
tape: U.S. v. Divna Maslenjak (Oct. 3, 2018), https://www.
courtlistener.com/audio/58819/united-states-v-divnamaslenjak/. At the time of writing, the Sixth Circuit had
not decided the matter.
228. Patrick Weil, The Sovereign Citizen: Denaturalization
and the Origins of the American Republic (2013).
172
229. As noted in a U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) Denaturalization Handbook,
“Prosecution under 8 U.S.C. § 1425 also is an important
consideration for subsequent removal proceedings
because an attorney could argue that a conviction for this
offense is a crime involving moral turpitude or an
aggravated felony.” U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, Denaturalization Investigations Handbook, OI HB 08-01, Jan. 15, 2008,
https://www.unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Denaturalization-full-hsi.pdf. For a list of
removable offenses see Section 237 of the INA, 8 U.S.C
§1227, http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1227&num=0&edition=prelim.
230. American Immigration Council, The Growth of the
U.S. Deportation Machine – More Immigrants Are Being
“Removed” from the United States Than Ever Before” (Mar. 1,
2014), https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/
research/growth-us-deportation-machine.
231. ICE, Office of Investigations, Denaturalization
Investigations Handbook, OI HB 08-01, 14-15, Jan. 15, 2008,
https://www.unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Denaturalization-full-hsi.pdf.
232. USA v. Okwampa, 1:17-cr-71 (Doc. 17-1), Guilty Plea
and Plea Agreement 4-5 (May 11, 2017) (emphasis added).
233. The Naturalization Act of 1906, Pub. L. No. 59-338, §
15.
234. Nationality Act of 1940, H.R. 9980, Pub. L. No.
76-853, § 338.
235. U.S. Const. amend. IXX (1920).
236. United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204, 215
(1923); Cassandra Burke Robertson and Irina D. Manta,
(Un)Civil Denaturalization, 94 New York University Law
Review 402, 425 (2019), https://www.nyulawreview.org/
wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NYULawReview-94-3-RobertsonMantapdf.pdf.
237. See Cassandra Burke Robertson and Irina D. Manta,
(Un)Civil Denaturalization, 94 New York University Law
Review 402, 425 (2019), https://www.nyulawreview.org/
wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NYULawReview-94-3-RobertsonMantapdf.pdf (citing the Mary Das
case).
238. Id.
239. United States v. Lopez, 704 F.2d 1382, 1387 (5th Cir.
1983); see also United States v. Ness, 245 U.S. 319 (1917)
(“Due to widespread fraud and abuse in the procurement
of naturalization, Act of June 29, 1906, of which predecessor to 18 U.S.C.S. § 1425 was part, passed as attempt to
remedy and prevent occurrence of fraud in naturalization
proceedings.”); Bindczyck, 342 U.S. at 79, 82 (“[T]he
history of the Act of 1906 makes clear that elections
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