U.S. targets naturalized citizens with criminal record

MIAMI — The United States government has long used its power to revoke citizenship in the rarest of cases, going after the likes of war criminals, child rapists and terrorist funders.

Norma Borgono is none of those. She came to the U.S. from Peru in 1989, volunteers weekly at church, raised two children on a $500-a-week salary and has a rare kidney disorder. But a week after her baby granddaughter came home from the hospital, Borgono received a letter from the U.S. government: The Justice Department was suing to “denaturalize” her as part of a push by the Trump administration to revoke citizenship from people who committed criminal offenses before they became citizens.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen if she goes to Peru,” said her daughter, Urpi Rios. “We have nothing there.”

Borgono, 63, a Miami resident for 28 years, is being targeted based on her minor role in a $24 million fraud scheme in the past decade. As the secretary of export company Texon Inc., she prepared paperwork for her boss, who pocketed money from doctored loan applications filed with the U.S. ExportImport Bank.

Borgono never made any money beyond her regular salary and helped the FBI make a case that put her former boss in prison for four years. Borgono was sentenced to one year of house arrest.

Borgono is one of thousands of citizens and legal residents who may now be subject to denaturalization and deportation for past offenses, some of them committed decades ago.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to spend more than $200 million to look for citizenship fraud and greencard fraud by permanent residents. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will hire 300 agents and scores of additional staffers.