Welfare Scammers and Terror Sympathizers Beware: Senator Schmitt’s SCAM Act Is Coming

Senator Eric Schmitt outlined a proposal aimed at expanding the federal government’s authority to revoke citizenship from individuals convicted of certain serious crimes, arguing that current law makes denaturalization extremely difficult once someone has become a U.S. citizen.

Schmitt discussed the issue while explaining the purpose of the SCAM Act, legislation he says is designed to address immigration fraud and other abuses within the legal immigration system. According to Schmitt, the proposal would broaden the circumstances under which naturalized citizens could lose their citizenship if they commit certain offenses after becoming Americans.

“Denaturalization is hard to do right now. It’s pretty rare,” Schmitt said.

Under current law, denaturalization cases are typically limited to situations where prosecutors can prove a person obtained citizenship through fraud during the naturalization process. That standard has historically made the process uncommon and difficult to pursue in court.

Schmitt said the proposed legislation would create additional grounds for revoking citizenship in cases involving serious criminal activity or national security concerns.

“This would expand the category by which you can denaturalize somebody if they commit welfare fraud, if they’re, you know, have an aggravated felony, if they’re a violent criminal, if they if they’re, you know, convicted of espionage, if they join a cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, or engage in terrorism,” Schmitt said.

He added that the proposal would include a specific time frame tied to the naturalization process.

“You have a 10 year look back from when they were de naturalized or naturalized, and you can denaturalize them and send them home right now, you can’t do that,” Schmitt said.

According to Schmitt, current legal standards make it difficult for authorities to pursue denaturalization after someone has completed the naturalization process.

“Once somebody becomes a citizen. It’s very hard to ever do that,” Schmitt said.

He explained that existing law generally requires proof that a person committed fraud when they initially applied for citizenship.

“You have to prove some sort of fraud in the inducement of fraud how they became a citizen in the first place,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt said the proposed legislation was written with existing court rulings in mind in order to ensure that any denaturalization process would comply with legal precedent.

“Now there are court rulings on this, and it’s importantly, we’ve drafted the statute that would comply with the court’s ruling that you tie this back to their initial, their original fraud of saying, I’m going to be loyal to United States and all that sort of thing,” Schmitt said.

The SCAM Act is intended to address what Schmitt described as broader concerns about abuse within the immigration system.

He said the proposal is aimed not only at individuals involved in serious crimes but also at addressing fraud related to legal immigration programs.

“So the scam act is very important if we’re serious about this, if we’re serious about taking on abuses with legal immigration, not just H-1b not just OPT,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt also referenced incidents in which individuals involved in criminal activity had previously obtained legal immigration status or citizenship.

“But when people do things like they did in Minneapolis, or you see what happened at Old Dominion, there’s a mechanism by which not just that we can prosecute them, but that we can ultimately denaturalize them and get them out of here,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt said the legislation is designed to create a clearer legal path for addressing immigration fraud and criminal conduct committed by naturalized citizens while still aligning with existing judicial rulings governing denaturalization.

If enacted, the SCAM Act would expand the categories of offenses that could trigger denaturalization proceedings while maintaining the requirement that the government connect those offenses to fraud or misrepresentation during the original naturalization process.

“addressing fraud related to legal immigration programs.”

If immigration is still the way it was when my wife went thru the process, the Chicago office is full of “fetchers”... Their job is to steer immigrants to immigration lawyers and consultants who just happen to be their brother, in-law or business partner. The immigrant pays high price to the immigration “consultant”. When using the services of these consultants the paperwork moves at the speed of the serial consulting fees.

The paperwork moves for the wannabe who pays.
The paperwork does not move for the wannabe who does not pay, either because they are poor...or because they are principled.
One reason for the number of illegals who have been here a long time and are still illegal is the WFA Waste, Fraud, Abuse in the immigrant processing bureaucracy.

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