U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) introduced a new bill on July 20 that aims to block the formation of a denaturalization office within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Carbajal introduced the bill alongside U.S. Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York) and Norma Torres (D-Ontario), the co-chairs of the New Americans Caucus.
Called the Defend New Americans Act, the bill is in response to the Department of Justice’s February announcement that “it had created an official section in its immigration office dedicated to denaturalization and requested over $200 million to investigate cases,” a press release from Carbajal’s office states.
Carbajal talked about how the new bill would counter those February measures, in an emailed statement.
“The Defend New Americans Act blocks the justice department from using federal funds to implement, administer, or enforce the Trump administration’s policy directive establishing this new section,” Carbajal explained. “Essentially, the bill will make sure no federal dollars are directed to the new denaturalization office.”
While in the past it was uncommon for the Department of Justice to utilize denaturalization, a press release cited that denaturalization case referrals have increased by 600 percent in the past three years. Carbajal explained why this might be.
“Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice have given any reason for the sudden uptick in referrals and there is no evidence of a corresponding increase in the number of fraudulent citizenship claims,” he wrote. “It’s hard to see this as anything other than an attack on the rights of U.S. citizens simply because they weren’t born here.”
As a naturalized citizen himself, the issue hits close to home for Carbajal.
“Like millions of other Americans who took the Oath of Allegiance, I am proud to be a naturalized citizen, and I refuse to let new Americans be treated as second-class citizens,” he said in a press release.
In his email, Carbajal added that, “Left unchecked, I fear the administration could try to retroactively void citizenship for naturalized Americans who have lived here for decades or even generations.”
Carbajal, Espaillat, and Torres also co-signed a letter sent in March asking members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to add language to the 2021 fiscal year appropriations legislation that would restrict the creation of the official denaturalization office. The appropriations package is not yet finalized. ∆
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2020.
And why would we want to continue to allow those who TOOK AN OATH to, among other things, SUPPORT AND DEFEND the Constitution AND laws of the United States of America… who we then find out used FRAUD to gain citizenship (by using a false name or claiming to be someone else) or who is a War Crimes or Human Rights violator, SEX Offenders (especially those who sexually abuse MINORS! Oh, and it also allows removal of citizenship for Terrorists and those trying to recruit terrorist for groups like al Qaeda.
Yeah, we want these criminals and sick people to be able to keep their citizenship, don’t we?
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-creates-section-dedicated-denaturalization-cases
This is NOT about trying to remove LAW ABIDING Naturalized Citizens no matter how much the politicians want you to THINK that it is. There are RULES and LAWS as to who can have their citizenship revoked and EACH PERSON will be tried, IN COURT before that can be done. OH, and the USA is NOT the only country that does this, nor is this a NEW process. The only difference is that having this office will expedite the cases and it will no longer be done by the Office of Immigration Litigation.
But it’s still designed to revoke status of people like Nedjo Milosevic, who was part of the Srebrenica massacre where over 8000 men and boys were killed and 30,000 women, children and elderly were forced out of their homes and country.
So, WHY would Carbajal be against taking away citizenship from these truly evil people? Is he afraid they will come after him for something HE has done in his past that would/should have prevented him from gaining citizenship? He doesn’t really say, does he? He just says he refuses “to let new Americans be treated as second-class citizens.” But does so without any PROOF that it is what happened to ANYONE. Come on Mr. Carbajal, state the cases the Government used in the past 3 years (as you say) to take away citizenship WITHOUT using the rule of law or following the laws YOU are sworn to uphold.