U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 13th (local time) that he will strip naturalized immigrants who defrauded U.S. citizens of their citizenship.
According to CNN and other outlets, Trump, in a speech at the Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, that day, cited a large-scale subsidies embezzlement fraud case in Minnesota and said, "Whether they are from Somalia or anywhere else, if a naturalized immigrant is convicted of defrauding our citizens, we will revoke their citizenship."
Late last year in Minnesota, authorities uncovered a case in which subsidies for meals targeting homeless people, children with autism, and others since the COVID-19 pandemic were embezzled, and most of those indicted were immigrants of Somali descent. They allegedly used "ghost day care centers," where there was no trace of children attending, to siphon off $4 million (about 5.8 billion won) in aid and are suspected of spending the money on purchases such as luxury cars.
Trump said, "If you came to America to rip off Americans, we will put you in jail and send you back to where you came from," adding, "An enormous number of people are deceiving our country. They came from nothing, and here they drive Mercedes-Benz." He also pointed out, "California, Illinois, New York and other places are just as serious (as Minnesota)."
He went on, "Starting Feb. 1, we will make no payments to sanctuary cities or to states that have sanctuary cities," saying, "Because they do everything to protect criminals at the expense of U.S. citizens." "Sanctuary cities" is interpreted to mean cities that oppose the federal government's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
To investigate the case, the Trump administration deployed personnel from nine agencies to Minnesota, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Justice will create a "legal strike unit" to respond to fraud crimes.
Earlier, the White House Office of Management and Budget put on hold the execution of support funds for low-income children in five states with Democratic governors—New York, Minnesota, California, Illinois and Colorado—citing "massive budgets flowing to undocumented immigrants."