Washington, Jun 8 (PTI): The US on Monday said it had initiated proceedings to revoke citizenship of 17 persons, including an Indian immigrant, who were accused of serious offences.

Among the 17 persons, 50-year-old Neeraj Sharma, the owner of a New Jersey-based staffing company Magnavision LLC, allegedly signed and filed 11 fraudulent H-1B visa petitions, claiming that the individuals would be employed with a global financial institution, the Department of Justice said here.

The letters submitted by Sharma as supporting documents for H-1B petitions allegedly carried forged signatures of executives of the global financial institution, it added.

The Department of Justice said Sharma had applied for naturalisation in 2017 and claimed that he had falsely testified under oath during his naturalisation interview about his prior criminal conduct.

The Justice Department said Sharma became a US citizen in December 2017. He was later convicted of fraud and misuse of visas for conduct that occurred between April 2015 and April 2017.

“American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a statement.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalised US citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and certificate of naturalisation cancelled, if the naturalisation was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.

“When criminal aliens exploit the naturalisation process by breaking the law, there are consequences. Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters. Gaining US citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“We will not turn a blind eye to those who unlawfully obtained US citizenship,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

Those targeted in the latest round of denaturalisation cases include a Haitian immigrant who allegedly sexually abused his daughter; a man from the former Yugoslavia convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 15; an immigrant from Mexico convicted of receiving sexually explicit images of minors; a former Catholic priest born in Colombia accused of child sex abuse; and a Filipino-born man who pleaded guilty to a child sex crime.

The daughter of a Colombian drug trafficker accused of money laundering; a man born in Jamaica convicted of wire fraud; and a Cuban-born woman accused of defrauding a tribal casino were also among those whose citizenship is being revoked. PTI SKU GRS GRS

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)