Q: If an immigrant became an American citizen by fooling INS about a marriage, can they get the citizenship revoked if

A: If DHS discovers that the issuance of a permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship was procured as a result of a willful misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact amounting to fraud then the U.S. citizenship can be revoked through a process called denaturalization. The former citizen is then subject to removal.

A: Reported fake and proven fake are two different sets of facts. A U.S. citizen also commits a Federal crime punishable by incarceration if they entered a marriage for the sole purpose of getting a green card. An insistent U. S. citizen spouse can end up indicted and convicted for marriage fraud, as well. The DHS may be investigating her, just waiting for her to incriminate herself, or simply ignoring her for obvious reasons, below.

There are too many U. S. citizen spouses who feel wronged due to irreconcilable differences. There are also many U.S. citizen spouses who are abusive towards their foreign spouses. Perhaps, that may be why they chose to marry a foreigner. A person commits blackmail, which is also a Federal crime if they keep insisting on money to keep from reporting a person to DHS. Blackmail is a more serious crime.

Many U.S. citizen spouses lie after divorce. The burden is always on the DHS to prove with clear and convincing evidence that the marriage was entered into based solely upon fraud. It is conceivable that U.S. citizenship can be revoked, but ICE must be skeptical of such claims when a U.S. citizen divorces only to seemingly get vindictive later.

The DHS assumes a vindictive spouse until the U. S. citizen incriminates themselves. The DHS may consider charges against the U.S. citizen for blackmail, as well.

The above is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney client relationship.