In a rare move, the Department of Justice (DOJ) aims to denaturalize a former mayor in Florida after finding out that the Haitian-born man illegally entered the U.S. and fraudulently obtained citizenship.
Jean Philippe Janiver was formerly the mayor of North Miami, and he also used two different identities to commit marriage fraud in order to obtain the citizenship that allowed him to hold office in the United States. At the time of the fraud, Lavier was already married to a Haitian citizen, so he apparently committed bigamy with his American marriage, along with immigration fraud.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin obtained a Feb. 19 release from the DOJ about Janiver. It is becoming increasingly obvious that our immigration system rewards illegal aliens and fraudsters while imposing endless and onerous requirements on law-abiding, responsible immigrants.
Janiver was an illegal alien with a final removal order who should never have obtained citizenship as he did, let alone been elected to public office.
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Melugin related details from the DOJ release about Janiver:
DOJ says he used a fraudulent “photo switched” passport under the name Jean Philippe Janiver to enter the U.S. before being ordered deported under that identity in 2001. He appealed the deportation order, then withdrew the appeal, claiming he had moved back to Haiti, when in reality, he remained in the U.S. and took on a new name, Philippe Bien-Aime, and new date of birth, then married a U.S. citizen to obtain permanent resident status…
DOJ says federal investigators at DHS/USCIS discovered the fraud & confirmed it through a comparison of fingerprints that he provided under the two identities.
As mentioned above, Janiver was already married at the time. He made a whole series of fraudulent statements to immigration authorities in order to obtain his citizenship in 2006.
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Therefore, between his previous final order of removal, which disqualified him, his fraudulent marriage, and his lies to United States immigration authorities, Janiver was in every way ineligible for citizenship. That decision was made some 20 years ago, unfortunately, but the DOJ can move to revoke his citizenship or denaturalize him. That is exactly what it is doing.
“This Administration will not permit fraudsters and tricksters who cheat their way to the gift of U.S. citizenship,” said Brett A. Shumate, who is an assistant attorney general with the DOJ Civil Division. “The passage of time does not diminish blatant immigration fraud.”
Southern Florida U.S. Attorney General Jason A. Reding Quiñones agreed, “United States citizenship is a privilege grounded in honesty and allegiance to this country… The fact that [Janiver] later served as an elected mayor makes the alleged deception even more serious, because public office carries a duty of candor and respect for the rule of law.” And those are qualities which Janiver certainly did not possess in any degree.
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