On Friday, May 8, 2026, the Department of Justice announced that it filed denaturalization actions in various U.S. district courts including Phoenix against 12 individuals accused of serious offenses—including providing material support to a terrorist group, committing war crimes, and sexually abusing a minor.
According to the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona filed a civil denaturalization complaint against Ali Yousif Ahmed, a native of Iraq.
Ahmed entered the United States in 2009 based on a claim that he and his family were attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. In 2019, the Republic of Iraq requested that the United States extradite Ahmed to Iraq to face criminal charges for the premediated murder of two Iraqi police officers in 2006. Iraq claims that Ahmed murdered the police officers as a leader in the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
Upon further investigation, United States learned that, in 2015, Ahmed illegally procured his naturalization, which warrants his denaturalization, because he lied under oath about his criminal and family history when he sought admission to the United States and naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and certificate of naturalization canceled, if the naturalization was illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
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