The latest showdown on Capitol Hill exposed a growing divide between Democrats worried about the feelings of criminals and Republicans focused on protecting American citizens.
During a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on denaturalization, Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri blasted Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii after she accused the Trump administration of “terrorizing immigrant communities” and attacked legislation aimed at stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans convicted of serious crimes.
The hearing centered on the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation Act, better known as the SCAM Act, legislation backed by Republicans that would allow the government to revoke citizenship from naturalized citizens convicted of offenses including terrorism-related crimes, major fraud schemes and other serious violations committed within a specified time period after naturalization.
Hirono, who immigrated to the United States from Japan as a child and later became a naturalized citizen, argued the proposal creates a two-tiered system of citizenship. “I happen to be the only naturalized citizen sitting on this committee, and I am horrified by the implication that naturalized citizens basically get second-class citizenship,” Hirono said. “As a naturalized citizen, I’m proud of it. I can’t think of a more undemocratic, un-American thing to do to someone who chooses to become a U.S. citizen than to hold this over their heads and treat us like second-class citizens.”
She also objected that the legislation could apply to crimes such as welfare fraud, arguing that Republicans were setting a dangerous precedent.
But Schmitt wasn’t having it.
The Missouri Republican delivered a response that instantly became the headline moment of the hearing. “What I’m saying in this bill is if you do those things to the American people, if you take advantage of taxpayers… if you commit a terrorist act, if you commit wholesale welfare fraud, within 10 years, you’re damn right we’re deporting you,” Schmitt shot back. “If you are convicted in a court of law of these crimes, absolutely we should not only convict you, but we should deport you. Gone. And if you think that’s some sort of negative assertion toward me, I’ll take it. I love it.”
Most Americans have little sympathy for terrorists, major fraudsters and criminals who obtained the benefits of citizenship only to turn around and abuse the country that granted it.
The debate comes as the Trump administration ramps up investigations into government waste, fraud and abuse. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly argued that decades of lax oversight allowed billions of taxpayer dollars to disappear through fraudulent programs and improper payments.
“Vice President JD Vance and Republicans are doing a great job hunting down Fraud in the various States,” Trump wrote this week. “Billions of Dollars is being found, and we’ve just started!”
Supporters of the SCAM Act point to cases they say prove the need for tougher safeguards.
Among them is Mirsad Ramic, who later joined ISIS after becoming a U.S. citizen. Schmitt also cited Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, the suspect accused in the deadly shooting at Old Dominion University, who had reportedly been naturalized after a prior conviction involving material support for ISIS.
Democrats frame the issue as a civil liberties concern. Republicans frame it as common sense.
