WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has denaturalized two people who gained US citizenship by concealing criminal activity, the Justice Department announced on October 21. "Securing denaturalization is the final step to strip citizenship from those who conceal crimes or defraud the American people," said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division, adding that the administration "will continue its historic denaturalization campaign to protect the value of US citizenship."
Source: US Department of Justice
In the first case, the US District Court for the Northern District of California on October 13 revoked the citizenship of Vivian Chike Obichere, holding that she illegally procured it, the department said. According to the DOJ, the Nigerian native in 1992 fraudulently used the name, Social Security number, birthplace and birthdate of a US citizen identified as "C.C.O." to illegally secure a US passport, renewed it in 2002, became a lawful permanent resident under her true identity in 2003, and in 2012 again tried to renew the fraudulent passport while applying to naturalize under her real name — testifying under oath in her naturalization interview that she had not used the name C.C.O., which the department said she knew was false.
Source: US Department of Justice
Obichere became a naturalized citizen in 2013 and was convicted in 2015 of false statement in application and use of a passport, as part of which she admitted the lies, the DOJ said. The department filed its denaturalization complaint on July 30, 2026; the parties filed a joint motion on October 7 and the court entered the consent judgment on October 13. Newsweek reported she agreed to judgment on one of four counts based on limited agreed facts, did not admit the government's other allegations, and the remaining three counts were dismissed without a decision on whether they were proven.
Source: Newsweek via Opera News
In the second case, the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on October 14 revoked the citizenship of Milagros Marileisis Acosta Torres, naturalized in 2015, holding she illegally procured it, the DOJ said. Before naturalizing, she was part of a conspiracy in which her husband and others stole millions of dollars from a tribal casino in Florida by creating false credit vouchers, and she carried out transactions to disguise the stolen proceeds and avoid reporting requirements, according to the department. In her 2015 application and interview she claimed she had never committed a crime for which she had not been arrested, which was false, the DOJ said; she was convicted in 2020, sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in restitution.
Source: US Department of Justice
For immigrant families in the US — including the large Punjabi diaspora — the two judgments underline the legal point the DOJ is pressing: citizenship obtained while concealing material crimes or fraud can be revoked years later by a federal court, even where, as in Obichere's case, the judgment was entered by consent on agreed facts.
Source: US Department of Justice