Amid the rising anti-immigration sentiment and US President Donald Trump’s vow to back the largest deportation campaign the country has ever seen, the US Justice Department flagged 12 more cases of foreign-born individuals that the government plans to denaturalise. Mentioned therein was Debashis Ghosh, a 62-year-old native of India who had so far been living in America as a naturalised US citizen.
The list included people born overseas in countries including Iraq, Uzbekistan, Kenya, China, and Colombia, who ultimately acquired US citizenship. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has now filed denaturalisation actions in various US district courts against all these individuals, accusing them of serious offences, including committing war crimes, providing material to a terrorist group, and sexually abusing a minor.
Most of these people are also believed to have illegally procured naturalisation or acquired it by concealing a material fact or wilfully misrepresenting their case, according to the official DOJ press release.
Indian-origin Debashis Ghosh came under the Trump administration’s radar under similar circumstances, in addition to his alleged role in a purported massive fraud scheme.
Why is DOJ planning to strip Indian-origin Debashis Ghosh’s US citizenship?
According to US officials, Ghosh conspired to scam $2.5 million out of investors over claims of constructing an aircraft maintenance facility. While this happened before the native of India naturalised, he is said to have continued the fraudulent scheme even after acquiring US citizenship.
Despite the prior alleged criminal activity, Ghosh is believed to have lied about his innocence in his 2012 naturalisation application and interview, according to DOJ. He allegedly told the concerned officers that he never committed a crime or offence that required his arrest.
In the denaturalisation complaint filed in the US District Court of North Districts of Illinois, Eastern Division, government officials argued that he is subject to denaturalisation because during the period in which he was required to demonstrate good moral character for his naturalisation eligibility, he committed a crime and unlawful acts, in addition to falsely testifying about the alleged crime.
Moreover, Ghosh has also been accused of willfully misrepresenting the material fact of his crime during the naturalisation proceedings, according to the Trump administration’s Justice Department.
Drawing out a potential timeline during which Ghosh’s alleged crimes happened, the official complaint states, “Defendant knew that, from in or about November 2010, and continuing through his April 30, 2012 naturalisation interview, he had committed the crime of conspiring to commit wire fraud and had not yet been arrested for this crime.”
“In fact, on October 18, 2017, a jury found Defendant guilty of the crime of
conspiring to commit wire fraud from November 2010 until August 2014,” the complaint dated May 7, 2026, added.
Debashis Ghosh’s immigration history revealed
US authorities confirmed in the complaint that Ghosh entered the US multiple times using various non-immigrant visas beginning as early as 1991. Thereafter, his employer filed a Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker on the defendant’s behalf. The now-defunct Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) ultimately approved the petition on August 2, 2001.
Over a month after that, Ghosh filed Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, seeking to adjust his immigration status to permanent resident in the US. The same was approved by INS a year later in September 2002.
Then, about a decade later in January 2012, the Indian-origin man filed a Form N-400, Application for Naturalisation with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The application blatantly asked him, “Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?” Ghosh checked the box marked “No,” according to DOJ.
Answering other similar questions inaccurately, Ghosh showed up to be interviewed by a USCIS officer regarding his naturalisation application in April 2012. He was placed under oath before the interview. After that, similar questions followed, again prompting replies consistent with his previous responses.
USCIS subsequently approved his naturalisation application on the basis of his application and sworn testimony during the interview. Following the the federal agency’s approval, he received a Form N-445, Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony, affirming that his oath ceremony would take place in May 2012.
About four years after he was admitted to US citizenship and issued the Certificate of Naturalisation, US authorities filed a one-count indictment charging Ghosh and a co-conspirator with conspiring, from in or about November 2010 through in or about August 2014, to commit wire fraud by misappropriating $2.5 million in funding provided by investors for construction of an aircraft maintenance facility, according to the official documents.
11 other foreign-born naturalised citizens of the US facing denaturalisation alongside Ghosh are Iraqi-origin Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri (48), Oscar Alberto Pelaez of Colombian descent (75), Khalid Ouazzani of Morocco-origin (48), Somalian-origin Salah Osman Ahmed (43), Baboucarr Mboob of Gambian descent (58), Kevin Robin Suarez – native of Bolivia (31), Abduvosit Razikov of Uzbekistan (46), Abdallah Osman Sheikh of Kenya, Chinese-origin Pin He (53), Nigerian-origin George Oyakhire (66) and Victor Manuel Rocha of Colombia (75).