Overview
- Federal prosecutors in Miami filed the civil denaturalization complaint Thursday, seeking to void Victor Manuel Rocha’s U.S. citizenship.
- The complaint brings seven counts and asks the court to cancel his naturalization certificate and require him to surrender U.S. passports.
- Rocha, 75, admitted in a 2024 plea that he served as a covert Cuban agent since 1973 and is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence.
- Prosecutors say he lied in his 1977–78 naturalization by denying crimes and Communist ties and by swearing allegiance to the United States while secretly working for Cuba.
- The case follows an FBI undercover operation in 2022–2023 that captured Rocha praising Fidel Castro and calling the U.S. the enemy, and it will be litigated by DOJ’s Denaturalization Unit with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.