Trump administration files lawsuit seeking to revoke American citizenship of an Indian-origin man convicted of terrorism

Washington, July 5: The Trump administration on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke American citizenship of an Indian native named Khaleel Ahmed, who is convicted of terrorism.

 

Notably, an acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke or denaturalize American citizenship of Khaleel Ahmed in a federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. After filing a lawsuit, he said, "Civil denaturalization is one important tool in our anti-terrorism efforts. We will continue to zealously seek out and prosecute individuals like Ahmed.”

The lawsuit alleges that Ahmed concealed and affirmatively misrepresented his criminal conduct throughout his naturalization proceedings and that his application would have been denied had immigration authorities known about his provision of material support to terrorists.

Meanwhile, Special Agent-in-charge James Gibbons said that the United States will never be a safe haven for those seeking to support terrorists. "When individuals lie to obtain immigration benefits, the system is severely undermined and the security of our nation is put at risk," he added.

Ahmed was born in 1980 and arrived in the US on August 16, 1998, as a lawful permanent resident. He obtained US citizenship in 2004. Ahmed was arrested by US security forces on the charges of providing material support to terrorists through his efforts to travel abroad in order to murder or maim US military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

In 2009, the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio accepted Ahmed and his cousins' guilty pleas, and in 2010, sentenced them imprisonment of eight years.