Abdiaziz Shafii Farah stood in a Minnesota federal courtroom last year and accepted a 10-year sentence for stealing $40 million from a program meant to feed hungry children.
He walked in as an American citizen and walked out the same way.
Eric Schmitt just built the law to make sure that never happens again.
The Citizenship Loophole Letting Welfare Fraudsters and Terrorists Walk Free
Here is the dirty secret about American citizenship law that Democrats never want you to understand.
Once someone is naturalized, stripping that citizenship requires proving fraud during the original application process.
Not fraud after the fact.
Not joining a terrorist organization after the ceremony.
Not stealing $40 million in welfare money from American taxpayers.
The fraud has to predate the oath – and prosecutors have to prove it in court.
"Denaturalization is hard to do right now," Schmitt told reporters. "It's pretty rare."
That is a polite way of saying the system is broken.
It means a naturalized citizen from Somalia can defraud federal nutrition programs for years, get convicted, serve time, and keep the citizenship they used as a shield the entire time.
It means a naturalized citizen convicted of supporting ISIS can exploit a prison bureaucracy loophole – as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh did in December 2024 – and kill an ROTC instructor at Old Dominion University 15 months later.
The legal framework that was supposed to protect American citizenship has instead protected the people who betrayed it.
How the SCAM Act Would Revoke Citizenship and Deport Them
Schmitt's Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation Act creates a 10-year look-back window from the date of naturalization.
Any naturalized citizen convicted within that window of welfare fraud against a government program, an aggravated felony, espionage, cartel membership, or affiliation with a designated foreign terrorist organization faces denaturalization and deportation.
The bill is built to survive the courts.
Schmitt's team threaded the constitutional needle by tying post-naturalization crimes back to the oath every applicant swears: loyalty to the United States, upstanding moral character, commitment to the good order of the country.
"Now there are court rulings on this," Schmitt explained, "and importantly, we've drafted the statute to comply with the court's ruling – you tie this back to their original fraud of saying, 'I'm going to be loyal to the United States.'"
Commit welfare fraud within 10 years of that oath?
The oath was fraud.
Join ISIS within 10 years of that oath?
The oath was fraud.
The SCAM Act also includes an automatic fallback provision: if a court strikes down the 10-year window as unconstitutional, it immediately shrinks to five years – keeping the mechanism alive while the legal battles play out.
Stephen Miller and the White House Are All In
The bill has the full backing of the White House.
Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security advisor, went on record the day it was introduced.
"The Somali fraud scandal is one of the greatest financial scandals in American history," Miller said. "All Somali refugees, or any other immigrants, who have committed fraud against the United States must be immediately denaturalized and deported."
Prosecutors have already charged nearly 80 people in the Minnesota schemes – with 59 convictions – and estimate the total theft could exceed $9 billion.
Trump himself said he would strip citizenship from the Minnesota fraudsters in a heartbeat.
The legal framework to do it didn't exist.
Until now.
Denaturalization for Welfare Fraud and Terrorism Is Now on the Table
Schmitt is explicit that the SCAM Act is not just a response to Minnesota.
The bill targets the entire legal immigration system – H-1B fraud, OPT abuse, welfare program manipulation, terrorist infiltration through the naturalization pipeline.
"If we're serious about taking on abuses with legal immigration," Schmitt said, "this is very important."
The existing framework – which requires proving fraud at the moment of application – was designed for a different era, when naturalization fraud meant lying on a form.
It was not designed for an era when naturalized citizens join Somali crime networks, funnel welfare money toward terror groups, or walk onto college campuses to murder soldiers.
The radical left has spent years arguing that citizenship, once granted, is effectively permanent – that the government has no recourse when a naturalized citizen proves through their conduct that they never deserved it.
Schmitt's bill says otherwise.
It says the oath means something.
It says betraying that oath within 10 years of swearing it is evidence you never meant it in the first place.
Congress has the bill.
Stephen Miller and the White House are demanding it.
Call your senator today and tell them the Minnesota fraud convicts are what happens when Washington lets people keep the citizenship they scammed their way into.
The Senate can fix it.
The only question is whether Mitch McConnell's ghost is still running the chamber.
Sources:
- Chad Pergram, "White House-backed GOP bill would revoke citizenship after Somali fraud scandal," Fox News, January 19, 2026.
- "Senator Schmitt Introduces Bill to Expand Denaturalization Process," Schmitt.senate.gov, January 19, 2026.
- "Sen Schmitt reups push for expanding denaturalization after recent acts of violence by naturalized citizens," Fox News, March 13, 2026.
- "Old Dominion University shooter identified as Mohamed Jalloh, former National Guard member, ISIS supporter," Fox News, March 12, 2026.
- Michael R. Sisak and Safiyah Riddle, "Old Dominion shooter was released from prison early after completing drug program," The Washington Times, March 14, 2026.
