WASHINGTON, DC — Gurdev Singh Sohal, also known as Dev Singh and Boota Singh Sundu, has been caught by the Department of Justice for using a false identity to gain U.S. citizenship in 2005 after being ordered deported in 1994.
The DOJ filed a civil complaint on September 24, alleging that Sohal concealed his prior deportation order by providing a new name, birth date, and entry date to re-enter the country and naturalize.
A 2020 expert analysis confirmed that fingerprints submitted under both identities belonged to the same person, thanks to the digitization of older fingerprint records by the Department of Homeland Security.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Civil Division stressed, “If you lie to the government or hide your identity so that you can naturalize, this Administration will find you and strip you of your fraudulently acquired U.S. citizenship.”
The complaint states that Sohal was never lawfully admitted for permanent residence, lacked the required good moral character, and intentionally concealed his previous deportation proceedings.
The case is part of the Historic Fingerprint Enrollment project, a DOJ and USCIS initiative that uses digitized fingerprint records to detect identity and immigration fraud