The US Department of Justice is set to revoke the citizenship of Gurdev Singh Sohal. As an Indian-origin man, Singh who is also known as Dev Singh, aka Boota Singh Sundu, is caught in the middle of a major immigration and identity fraud. The DOJ filed a civil denaturalisation complaint against the individual on Wednesday, September 24 (US time).
Long before, American authorities red-flagged him this week, he was already on his path to being deported from the country. In 1994, he was ordered to leave the country, and yet he disregarded the official exclusion order and went on to acquire his US citizenship in 2005. As aforementioned, he resorted to making use of his multiple names in the country.
Indian-origin man Gurdev Singh Sohal used multiple identities for US citizenship
After he was first facing deportation from the US under the name Dev Singh, he switched to a new identity, changing his name, date of birth and date of entry into America. Without revealing his prior brushes with immigration authorities as ‘Dev Singh,’ he withheld crucial information about his history from official applications and proceedings linked to the naturalisation process. He was ultimately naturalised as ‘Gurdev Sohal’ without his previous red flags coming into focus.
Fingerprints unravelled the immigration fraud case
However, that remained the case only until 2020. In February that year, expert analysis pinned him down once fingerprint submissions under both ‘Dev Singh’ and ‘Gurdev Sohal’ identities ended up matching each other. Authorities saw through the facade thanks to the Department of Homeland Security digitising the paper fingerprint submission documents from older immigration files.
The civil denaturalisation complaint filed against Singh this week suggests that he illegally went out to seek his US citizenship. On top of the lies Sohal told to reach that goal, it further shows that since Sohal was never legally accepted for permanent residence he did not fulfill the formal moral character obligations needed for naturalisation.
Given the severity of the situation, a third count against the Indian-origin man indicates that he procured his naturalisation by concealing and intentionally misrepresenting his older identity and immigration history.
Trump administration’s strict stance on immigration fraud
Back in August, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a new rule targeting false citizenship claims. “Protecting the integrity of our lawful immigration system to make America safe again is our top priority,” the official government account wrote in an X post, highlighting its stance against “aliens who falsify information.”
The USCIS tweet also warned, “Immigration fraud is a crime we take seriously. Aliens who use false information or deceitful practices to unfairly obtain immigration advantages will face serious consequences.”
Reiterating the same sentiment, Assistant Attorney General Brett A Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division, sent out a scathing reminder this week in light of Sohal’s case. “If you lie to the government or hide your identity so that you can naturalize, this Administration will find you and strip you of your fraudulently acquired U.S. citizenship,” he said, according to the official Justice Department press release.