A Maryland court granted a Justice Department motion to denaturalize convicted sex offender Jorge Antonio Graciano Lara.
The court ruled that Graciano Lara “lacked the requisite good moral character to naturalize due to his crimes” and lied on immigration papers.
Graciano Lara previously pleaded guilty in Maryland state court to having vaginal intercourse with a minor and has a prior September 2017 conviction for second-degree rape. He had sexual intercourse with the victim several times over a four-year period, the Department of Justice said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner that the DOJ will continue trying to denaturalize criminals.
“American citizenship is a sacred privilege that this monster should never have obtained,” Bondi said. “This Department of Justice will continue working to denaturalize criminals like these who lie about their past actions to take advantage of our immigration system.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division added that “sex offenders who try to naturalize by hiding their unlawful acts from immigration officials must learn that if the United States finds out, the government will come after their citizenship.”
The case was part of Operation Prison Lookout, a plan to denaturalize criminals. The DOJ said in a June memo that it would prioritize denaturalizing criminals to prevent them from receiving the continued benefits of U.S. naturalization.
“At a fundamental level, it also supports the overall integrity of the naturalization program by ensuring
that those who unlawfully procured citizenship, including those who obtained it through fraud or
concealment of material information, do not maintain the benefits of the unlawful procurement,” the memo said.
The Trump administration has used various tools to help achieve its immigration goals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has boosted hiring with a much larger budget at its disposal, and migrant detention centers have cropped up around the country.
The administration aims to deport 1 million people annually.
