An Indian man became a US citizen by changing his identity in 2005 but was caught through fingerprints in 2020.

The Justice Department had filed a civil denaturalization complaint against an Indian-origin man who changed his identity to obtain US citizenship. A federal judge has ruled in favor of the DOJ and ordered him to revoke the citizenship of a man he said committed immigration and identity fraud.Gurdev Singh Sohal, also known as Dev Singh and Buta Singh Sundu, became a naturalized US citizen in 2005. After living in the US continuously for 3-5 years on a Green Card, a person becomes a naturalized citizen of the US.But Sohal was ordered deported in 1994 when he went by his first name, Dev Singh. Instead of leaving America, he took on a new identity, new date of birth, new date of entry into the United States, and became Sohal with an entirely new background. Sohal was naturalized under a new and assumed identity. Sohal concealed his prior immigration history under the Dev Singh identity in any of his immigration applications or proceedings under the new identity.In 2020, fingerprint analysts confirmed that the two were the same person.On April 13, the court found that Sohal obtained his US citizenship illegally because his unlawful acts by concealing his prior identity made him unable to show that he had inherently good moral character.“This case demonstrates the strength and commitment of this Administration to ensure the sanctity of American citizenship,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The collaboration between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security reflects a strong partnership to protect the country from immigration and identity fraud.”Sohal’s case was the ninth denaturalization action since January 20, 2025, when the department filed it.