The Somali fraud scandal reveals a hard truth: Our citizenship process is broken. It's time to fix that. That's why…

The Somali fraud scandal reveals a hard truth: Our citizenship process is broken. It's time to fix that. That's why I'm introducing legislation to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who commit fraud and other serious felonies. 🧵

Today, I'm introducing the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act. The principle of this bill is simple: If someone commits serious crimes after naturalization, it’s evidence they never qualified for citizenship in the first place—and it should be revoked.

Under the SCAM Act, a number of serious crimes would officially become legal grounds for denaturalization. That includes felony fraud against government programs; aggravated felonies; or joining or affiliating with drug cartels or terrorist groups.

To become a U.S. citizen, applicants must be: 1. Of good moral character 2. Attached to the principles of the Constitution 3. Well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States Those standards are supposed to be non-negotiable conditions for naturalization.

If recently-naturalized citizens violate those conditions, it should be treated as evidence that their citizenship was illegally obtained. That principle already exists in U.S. law: Lying or concealing things in the naturalization process can be grounds for revoking citizenship.

Denaturalization is not new. Congress first authorized it over a century ago for instances where post-naturalization revelations demonstrate an individual's citizenship was fraudulently and illegally procured. The Supreme Court has upheld that authority on the same grounds.

During both WWI and WWII, the U.S. denaturalized foreign-born citizens who aligned themselves with and/or worked on behalf of enemy powers. After that, throughout the Cold War, the U.S. denaturalized individuals who were found to have concealed their Communist Party membership.

In fact, Barack Obama went so far as to launch an entire program—"Operation Janus"—specifically aimed at identifying and undoing fraudulently obtained citizenship after discovering massive gaps with the potential for fraud in hundreds of thousands of naturalization files.

In other words, the SCAM Act doesn't invent a new idea out of whole cloth, nor does it contradict any longstanding principle in our legal tradition. It builds on an existing principle by applying it to modern conditions—which unfortunately includes massive Somali fraud rings.

A number of the Somalis convicted in this scandal were naturalized U.S. citizens. They were entrusted with the gift of American citizenship, and they betrayed that trust by enriching themselves at our expense. That alone should be proof that our citizenship process is broken.

This bill is a step towards restoring it. If you swear an oath to be loyal to our laws, and then commit felony fraud or other serious crimes—you lied when you took that oath. If you lied in your oath, you never met the conditions for citizenship and should be denaturalized.