By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration said on Tuesday it was auditing immigration cases involving U.S. citizens of Somali origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship.
"Under U.S. law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that was first reported by Fox News and reposted by the White House on social media.Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, about 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017.
Since taking office in January, Trump, a Republican, has pursued a hardline immigration policy involving an aggressive deportation drive, revocations of visas and green cards, and screening of social media posts and past speeches of immigrants.
Human rights groups widely condemn Trump's policies, saying they curb rights like due process and free speech. Trump and his allies say the policies aim to improve domestic security.
Federal officials in recent weeks have portrayed Minnesota's Somali community as a hotspot for fraud involving millions of federal dollars intended for social services. Immigrant-rights advocates say the administration is using the fraud investigations as an excuse to target Somali immigrants more broadly.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the bureau has "surged" investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota in the latest instance of the Trump administration's fraud investigations that have targeted the state's Somali immigrants.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services separately said on Tuesday it has frozen all child care payments to Minnesota. It said that going forward all payments from the department's Administration for Children and Families nationwide "will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state."
In response, Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz said his state government has "spent years cracking down on fraudsters" and that Trump was "politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans."
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Michael Perry)
