US citizenship is not a cheap status, DOJ says as it revokes the citizenship from three criminals.
Ukrainian arms smuggler Vladimir Volgaev, Cuban woman Cabrera Diaz and Lebanese man Alec Nasreddine Kassir. All three of them had US citizenship until they didn’t, as the Donald Trump administration found out their crime trail and denaturalized them, revoking their US citizenship, making it clear that getting US citizenship does not make an individual immune to punitive actions and citizenship can be revoked. “American citizenship is a sacred privilege — not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “These actions reflect this Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to strip citizenship from people who conceal crimes or defraud the American people during the immigration process.”
Ukrainian arms smuggler Vladimir Volgaev
Starting in 2011, Volgaev was involved in purchasing, packaging and smuggling of firearm components to individuals in Ukraine and Italy. On Sept 30, 2025, the Justice Department filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida seeking Volgaev’s denaturalization based on his crimes and his failure to disclose them during his naturalization process.On March 23, the court entered an order revoking Volgaev’s U.S. citizenship. The court held that Volgaev committed unlawful acts during the period prior to his naturalization in which he was required to show good moral character, thus making him ineligible for naturalization. Also, the court found that Volgaev provided false testimony regarding his criminal background and procured his U.S. citizenship by willfully misrepresenting these facts.
Cuban woman Cabrera Diaz
Mirelys Cabrera Diaz, a native of Cuba and resident of Hialeah, Florida, became a naturalized US citizen in 2017. She committed healthcare fraud between 2011 and 2014 before she was naturalized. She admitted that she and her co-conspirators paid kickbacks to patient recruiters for referring fraudulent prescriptions to the pharmacy where she worked.The US district court held that Cabrera Diaz illegally procured her naturalization. Among the requirements for naturalization, Cabrera Diaz was required to show that she was a person of good moral character during the “statutory period” from five years before she applied for naturalization until she took the oath of citizenship. The court concluded that she could not establish the required good moral character for naturalization because she conspired to commit health care fraud.
Lebanese criminal Alec Nasreddine Kassir
Kassir committed a marriage fraud as he claimed that he had been living with a US citizen spouse, during the three years immediately preceding the filing of his naturalization application in March 2010. On Nov 14, 2018, he pleaded guilty to passport fraud in the Southern District of Florida. In his criminal proceedings, Kassir admitted that he obtained his US passport through the fraudulent procurement of his naturalization. He admitted that he was not living in marital union — or even in the same state — with his purported US citizen spouse; rather, but they separated in 2009 and Kassir moved to Florida. Kassir’s immigration fraud was uncovered during an investigation into his trafficking of counterfeit goods after he naturalized, for which he was convicted of conspiring to commit money laundering.
