The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), also known as the immigration office, announced on Friday, October 9, that a former doctor was convicted of citizenship fraud, with the agency providing crucial assistance in the related investigation.
Yousif Abdulraouf Alhallaq, 47 years old, residing in Canton, Ohio, was found to have lied on his naturalization application (Form N-400) and during the interview process, according to documents from the Northern District of Ohio Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Court documents revealed that Alhallaq was born in Kuwait, entered the US in 2006 on an H-1B visa, applied for lawful permanent residency in 2011, and was approved. Evidence presented in court showed that he started working as an internal medicine physician in northeastern Ohio in 2012.
In December 2014, after his girlfriend became pregnant with his child, Alhallaq secretly slipped abortion pills into her oatmeal, attempting to terminate the pregnancy without her knowledge. Years later, the victim learned the truth and reported the incident to the authorities.
In 2017, he submitted the N-400 form to apply for citizenship, answering “No” to the following questions on the form:
– #14D: Have you ever intentionally committed a serious crime against or tried to harm another person?
– #22: Have you ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit a crime, or engaged in unlawful behavior but were not arrested?
In 2018, immigration officials interviewed Alhallaq to review his answers on the N-400 form. After taking an oath, he verbally confirmed that his responses to questions 14D and 22 were “No,” consistent with his initial answers submitted by mail.
Alhallaq intentionally illegally terminated his girlfriend’s pregnancy, facing charges of attempted murder and felony assault. However, he falsely claimed to federal officials that the information he provided was accurate, leading to his acquisition of US citizenship.
On May 4, 2018, he was officially naturalized as a US citizen.
On March 18, 2021, Alhallaq was indicted for the 2014 attempted intentional termination of the victim’s pregnancy, resulting in severe physical harm to her and her unborn child, including one count of attempted murder and two counts of felony assault.
In September 2021, Alhallaq pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He currently faces up to 10 years in prison for citizenship fraud and the possibility of having his citizenship revoked.
The investigation was conducted in Cleveland by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate under USCIS, as well as the Homeland Security Investigations unit under the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).