(OREGON) – The U.S. government filed a civil denaturalization complaint on June 16, 2026, accusing Jaswinder Singh, an Indian-American resident of Oregon, of obtaining U.S. citizenship through identity fraud and concealment of an earlier deportation order.

The complaint names Singh, also known as Balwinder Singh, as a 54-year-old man who allegedly used two identities in separate immigration filings over more than two decades. Federal authorities seek citizenship revocation on the grounds that he illegally procured naturalization and gave false testimony during the process.

The case was announced by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security after an investigation led by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The complaint charges Singh with illegal procurement of naturalization because he was not lawfully admitted for permanent resident status and because he provided false testimony in his naturalization interview. The complaint also charges that Singh procured citizenship through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.

Court records and official accounts trace the case back to August 1990, when Singh first applied for immigration benefits under the name Balwinder Singh. An immigration judge denied that application in November 1990 and ordered his deportation.

After his appeals failed, authorities ordered him to surrender in July 1993. He did not do so. Federal officials say that defiance of the surrender order became a central part of the later fraud allegations.

In November 1994, the government says, he filed a new application under the name Jaswinder Singh.

That filing used a different date of birth and a different date of entry into the United States, while omitting any reference to the earlier identity and the 1990 deportation order.

That second identity led to legal status. Singh obtained lawful permanent resident status in August 2003, then applied for naturalization and became a U.S. citizen on June 3, 2013, after certifying under penalty of perjury that the information he had provided was true.

The Oregon complaint fits into a wider federal push to pursue denaturalization cases that officials say involve fraud, concealment or false statements in the naturalization process.

American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege. DHS will not stand idly by while perpetrators of fraud have exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system. We will continue to use every lawful avenue to denaturalize and remove aliens.

Federal officials tied Singh’s case to a sharp increase in referrals and filings. Denaturalization cases historically averaged 11 per year between 1990 and 2017.

By June 2026, the administration had directed USCIS to refer 100 to 200 cases per month to the Justice Department, with a goal of filing up to 2,400 cases annually.

Authorities say the expansion has been aided by digitization of older fingerprint records that were once kept on paper. That process allows DHS to match deportation records from the 1990s with people who later became naturalized citizens under different biographical information.

Officials have described that effort as part of Operation Janus, a long-running initiative aimed at cases in which earlier immigration records did not surface during later applications for permanent residence or citizenship.

Singh’s case follows the pattern federal agencies have outlined: an earlier deportation history, a later filing under a new identity, and naturalization that authorities say should never have been granted.

The complaint is civil, not criminal, and asks the U.S. District Court to cancel Singh’s Certificate of Naturalization if the government prevails.

In denaturalization cases, the government seeks to unwind citizenship on the basis that it was never lawfully obtained.

If the court rules against Singh, his citizenship would be revoked. The government’s account says his status would ordinarily revert to lawful permanent resident status, but the complaint also alleges that status was obtained through fraud, leaving removal as the likely next step.

That sequence carries particular weight in this case because of the earlier deportation order. Once citizenship is stripped, officials say, the prior order places Singh at risk of detention and deportation.

The case also highlights the legal stakes of identity fraud in the immigration system.

Naturalization depends on a lawful admission for permanent residence and truthful answers during interviews and applications; the government’s complaint says Singh failed on both points by concealing his earlier deportation history and by presenting false biographical information under a different name.

USCIS has played a central role in these cases by reviewing older files, fingerprint records and prior immigration proceedings for discrepancies that did not surface when applicants first sought green cards or citizenship.

In Singh’s case, authorities say those records showed that the man naturalized in 2013 was the same person who had been ordered deported in 1990.

Singh now faces a court fight that reaches back more than three decades, from an immigration filing in 1990 to a naturalization ceremony on June 3, 2013, and to a complaint filed on June 16, 2026 that seeks to erase the citizenship he obtained under the name Jaswinder Singh.