U.S. authorities have moved to denaturalise another 10 “drug dealers, scammers and children molesters.”
The U.S. Department of Justice, in a statement on Monday, published the names, countries and crimes of 10 individuals to be denaturalised, in addition to the 17 it earlier announced in June.
“Trump administration continues largest denaturalisation effort ever. The Department of Justice announced today that it filed denaturalization actions in various U.S. district courts against 10 individuals accused of serious offenses—including sexual abuse of a child, health care and wire fraud, immigration fraud, and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine,” the statement said.
According to the DoJ, the complaints were filed over the last 30 days. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalised U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and the certificate of naturalisation canceled, if the naturalisation was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “These ten criminal aliens — including child sex abusers, a $900,000 Medicare fraudster, and a cocaine trafficker — lied their way into U.S. citizenship.”
He added, “Each of these individuals lacked the good moral character required by law and procured citizenship through willful misrepresentations and concealment of their crimes. Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue denaturalization to restore integrity to America’s naturalization process.”
Read below the names, countries and crimes committed by the 10 individuals President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to denaturalise:
1. Rodriguez Perez (Age 45/Cuba): Mr Perez, a native of Cuba, became a lawful permanent resident in 2004 and naturalised as a U.S. citizen in 2018. Before obtaining citizenship, however, Mr Perez operated a purported medical clinic and submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare in excess of $886,694. Mr Perez concealed this criminal conduct throughout the naturalisation process and provided false testimony under oath to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer. Mr Perez later pleaded guilty and was convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud.
2. Ceflo Luviano-Mojica (Age 60/Mexico): On July 14, 2026, the United States brought a denaturalisation action against Ceflo Luviano-Mojica, a native of Mexico, who misrepresented his prior arrest for carrying a concealed firearm and grand theft, for which he spent 30 days in jail. In 1998, Mr Luviano pleaded guilty and was convicted in the Northern District of Georgia of, inter alia, providing false information in a naturalisation application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1015. Mr Luviano admitted he had made a false statement both on his naturalisation application and during his interview, when he testified under oath that he had never been arrested, charged or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law.
3. Vazquez Ortega (Age 53/Mexico): On July 10, 2026, the United States brought a denaturalisation action against Mr Ortega, who sexually assaulted children while employed as a priest in a Washington, D.C., church. Mr Ortega is a native of Mexico and was naturalised as a U.S. citizen on July 11, 2017. Mr Ortega was charged with and convicted in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia of multiple counts of second-degree child sexual abuse. Between 2015 and 2017, Mr Ortega touched the breasts, genitalia and buttocks of his victims and, in one instance, thrust his tongue into the mouth of a minor female victim. In 2019, Mr Ortega was sentenced to 15 years in prison and is presently incarcerated.
4. Murtaza Ali (Age 65/Pakistan): Mr Ali is a native of Pakistan who filed multiple applications for immigration benefits under different aliases until he obtained an immigration benefit under the alias “Muhammad Iqbal.” Through the grant of that immigration benefit, Mr Ali obtained permanent residency under the alias “Muhammad Iqbal” and thereafter naturalised under this alias in 2009. Following Mr Ali’s naturalisation, a fingerprint expert determined that the fingerprints provided with immigration benefit applications filed under the names “Mortaza Ali” and “Muhammad Iqbal” were made by the same person. As a result, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas charged Mr Ali with making false material statements to an agency of the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. In 2014, Mr Ali pleaded guilty as charged, admitting that he had filed three separate applications for immigration benefits using three different identities.
5. Jimmy Aguero (Age 51/Peru): Mr Aguero repeatedly sexually abused his minor stepdaughter prior to naturalising as a U.S. citizen on October 6, 2015. A jury found Mr Aguero guilty on eight counts of sexual abuse of a minor, and he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging that Mr Aguero was statutorily barred from showing that he was a person of good moral character because of his convictions. The Department also alleged that he procured his naturalisation by concealment of material facts.
6. Antonio Alcantara-Ruiz (Age 53/Mexico): On June 23, 2026, the United States brought a denaturalisation action against Mr Alcantara-Ruiz, also known as Emiliano Quintana-Gonzalez and Antonio Quinn Alcantara, who misrepresented his identity to secure citizenship. Prior to the naturalization process, he purchased identity documents from a fellow Mexican citizen and used those documents to secure a replacement permanent resident card containing Mr Alcantara-Ruiz’s picture and fingerprint. Mr Alcantara-Ruiz then used the false documents in support of his naturalisation.
7. Omar Cantu-Montalvo (Age 44/Mexico): Mr Cantu-Montalvo was admitted to the United States in March 1996 and subsequently obtained permanent residence. When he applied for naturalization in July 2005, Mr Cantu-Montalvo stated in his application that he had never committed a crime or offence for which he had not been arrested. He later repeated that claim during his naturalisation interview. His application was approved, and he naturalised in December 2005. In April 2016, however, Mr Cantu-Montalvo pleaded guilty in federal district court to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than five kilogrammes of cocaine—a conspiracy he joined in April 2005, just a few months before he applied for naturalisation. For his crime, the court sentenced Mr Cantu-Montalvo to 100 months’ imprisonment, followed by a five-year term of supervised release.
8. Francisco Montano (Age 59/Mexico): Mr Montano was legally admitted to the United States in February 1987, but when he applied to naturalise in 1997, Mr Montano failed to divulge that he had sexually abused a child during the mandatory five-year good moral character period prior to the naturalisation process. Montano was later convicted in a Texas state court of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and four counts of indecency with a child that occurred during the five-year period. As Mr Montano should not have been naturalised, the United States filed a complaint on June 30 in the Southern District of Texas to revoke his illegally obtained citizenship.
9. Marcin Stanislaw Garbacz (Age 47/Poland): Mr Garbacz, a native of Poland and former Roman Catholic priest, became a lawful permanent resident in 2008 and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2014. Before obtaining citizenship, Mr Garbacz engaged in a scheme to steal approximately $259,696 in cash collections from three parishes within the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota. Mr Garbacz also secretly recorded a 17-year-old showering during a church trip to Poland. Mr Garbacz concealed this criminal conduct throughout the naturalisation process. Mr Garbacz was later convicted of multiple federal offences, including wire fraud, making and subscribing a false tax return, and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign country involving a minor.
10. Martin Garcia Cardiel (Age 60/Mexico): On July 6, 2026, the United States filed a complaint in the District of Utah seeking the denaturalisation of Martin Garcia Cardiel. Mr Cardiel was admitted to the United States in December 2000 and subsequently obtained permanent residence. When he applied to naturalise in 2011, Mr Cardiel stated in his application that he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested. He further indicated in his application that he had never given false or misleading information to any United States government official while applying for any immigration benefit. He naturalized in October 2011. However, in 2022, a petit jury in the State of Utah convicted Mr Cardiel of 19 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child based on acts he committed in 2007. Evidence at trial indicated that the two victims were his neighbours, sisters who were seven and eight years old when the abuse began. He was sentenced to consecutive prison terms of 15 years to life.
