Philadelphia Immigration Lawyer Blog

The BIA has issued an opinion in a matter that serves as a useful reminder of how essential it is in being completely truthful and very thorough in completing and filing an N-400 naturalization application. If an applicant is less than truthful in completing the N-400, the fraud will come back to haunt him or her even after the applicant becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In the Matter of Alfonso Gonzalez-Muro (24 I&N Dec. 472 (BIA 2008) Interim Decision #3604, issued March 11, 2008), the Respondent committed crimes when he was a lawful permanent resident, he concealed those crimes during the naturalization application process, then became a U.S. citizen but he was ultimately placed in removal proceedings. The Immigration Judge at the removal hearing terminated the removal proceedings against the Respondent on the grounds that because the Respondent’s convictions (not the commissions of the crimes) occurred after he became a U.S. citizen, he could not be removed.

But the BIA overturned the Immigration Judge and ruled that because the respondent committed some of his crimes when he was a lawful permanent resident (which meant that he was removable at the time he committed those crimes) and because he represented in his N-400 application that he had not committed a crime for which he had not been convicted, his citizenship was obtained by fraud. The BIA ruled that because his citizenship was obtained by fraud, that citizenship would not protect him from adverse immigration consequences relating to his crimes.

Interestingly, the Respondent had entered into a prior settlement agreement with the government by which he accepted the revocation of his naturalization. As part of that settlement agreement, he agreed to be “forever restrained and enjoined from claiming any rights, privileges, or advantages under any document that evidences United States citizenship obtained as a result of [his] June 24, 1994 naturalization.” It is not clear from the BIA decision why the Respondent stipulated to being denaturalized since it should have been clear to him that the government intended to try to remove him. Perhaps he was confident that prior case law (including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Costello v. INS, 376 U.S. 120 (1964)) would protect him since his convictions all took place after he became a U.S. citizen.

In any event, it’s a lesson in the need for complete honesty in any application for immigration benefits. Being anything less than completely honest in an immigration application always makes a past problem even worse than it may already be.