A federal court has stripped a New York man of his U.S. citizenship after finding he concealed a violent crime during the NaturalizationThe process by which a permanent resident becomes a U.S. citizen, generally after three or five years of residence, by filing Form N-400.See it in the glossary process.
The case
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered judgment revoking the naturalization of Gurmeet Singh, a native of India, the Department of Justice announced. According to the department, Singh concealed a rape and kidnapping he committed against a passenger in his taxicab while his naturalization application was pending, then became a U.S. citizen on October 19, 2011. He was later convicted in New York of Rape in the First Degree and Kidnapping in the Second Degree as a Sexually Motivated Felony and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Case timeline
The Justice Department filed its denaturalization complaint against Singh on February 2, 2026, and the court’s judgment finalized on August 26 requires him to surrender the citizenship he obtained. The case was prosecuted by the department’s Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
What happens now
Because denaturalization is a civil process rather than a removal proceeding, losing citizenship does not by itself result in deportation. Singh’s status reverts to lawful permanent resident, the status he held before naturalizing, which leaves him eligible for separate Removal proceedingsThe formal court process, formerly called deportation, in which the government seeks to remove a noncitizen from the United States.See it in the glossary before an Immigration judgeAn attorney appointed by the Attorney General who presides over removal proceedings in immigration court, part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review.See it in the glossary once his criminal sentence concludes. The Justice Department has said it will continue pursuing denaturalization cases where naturalization was obtained through fraud or concealment of a material fact.