Overview
- Sen. Eric Schmitt used a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing this week to press the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act, which would widen grounds for denaturalization and deportation.
- The SCAM Act would extend the post‑naturalization window from five to ten years and broaden the kinds of crimes that can trigger revocation of citizenship.
- Lawmakers at the hearing cited USCIS’s Operation Janus findings, including reports of missing fingerprint records and cases of people who obtained citizenship using false identities, as justification for the bill.
- Democrats warned the measure would treat naturalized citizens as second‑class, risk terrifying immigrant communities, and raise due‑process concerns, while some witnesses urged Congress to fix vetting procedures rather than expand denaturalization authority.
- The proposal remains under Senate consideration as critics raise legal limits, court‑capacity and enforcement questions and as the Justice Department shifts resources to pursue more civil denaturalization suits.