Senate Republicans push to deport, denaturalize fraudsters amid Minnesota scandal
FIRST ON FOX: A cohort of Senate Republicans want to ensure that both illegal immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizens who are convicted of fraud are booted from the country.The lawmakers,...
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: A cohort of Senate Republicans want to ensure that both illegal immigrants and naturalized U.S. citizens who are convicted of fraud are booted from the country. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn , R-Tenn., are pushing new legislation that would modify an existing, decades-old law that underpins immigration policy in the country to either deport or revoke the citizenship of convicted fraudsters. Their bill, the Fraud Accountability Act, comes on the heels of the ever unfolding Minnesota fraud scandal , where federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion in taxpayer dollars was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, among others. JAMES COMER TO ACCUSE TIM WALZ OF BEING 'ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL' AT FRAUD HEARING "Anyone who comes to the United States and steals from American taxpayers by committing fraud should be deported," Blackburn said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The fraud schemes we have seen in Minnesota and across the country are a betrayal of hardworking American taxpayers, and individuals like the Somali scammers in Minnesota should be subject to both deportation and denaturalization for these crimes," she continued. "The Fraud Accountability Act would hold these criminals accountable for robbing American taxpayers." The situation in Minnesota has become a hot topic on Capitol Hill since lawmakers returned for the new year and the start of a new legislative session this week. In its wake, it torched the political career of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz , who lawmakers say oversaw the alleged multibillion-dollar scandal. MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING SPARKS IMMIGRATION CLASH AS GOP LAWMAKER SPOTLIGHTS SOMALI WELFARE DATA The legislation would modify the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a law enacted in the 1950s that governs the country’s immigration laws, including visas, green cards, and citizenship, among several other enforcement matters. Tweaks to th…