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Original Date Announced
April 24, 2020USCIS updates their policy manual to reflect Matter of Zhang (BIA June 2019) that the government need not show knowing intent to defraud or misrepresent when it comes to false claims of U.S. citizenship, while also extending holding to inadmissibility. [ID #461]
Policy Alert: False Claim to U.S. Citizenship Ground of Inadmissibility and Matter of ZhangEffective Date
April 24, 2020Current Status
Fully in EffectOriginal Trump Policy Status
Status: Final/ActualTrump Administration Action: Agency DirectiveSubject Matter: Enforcement CitizenshipPre Trump-Era Policies
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November 30, 2019
In previous guidance, a noncitizen needed to have made the false representation knowingly in order to be inadmissible under INA section 212(a)(6)(C)(ii). However, in Matter of Zhang, 27 I&N Dec. 569 (BIA 2019), the BIA noted that unlike section 212(a)(6)(C)(i), the plain language of 237(a)(3)(D)(i) does not require an intent to falsely represent citizenship to trigger this ground of removability. Zhang reasoned that “the absence of a ‘knowing’ or ‘willful’ requirement for false claims to citizenship in sections 212(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I) and 237(a)(3)(D)(i) indicates that there was no congressional intent to include one.” Zhang, 27 I&N at 571, n.3 (citing Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557, 578 (2006)). Therefore, for inadmissibility under 212(a)(6)(C)(ii), a noncitizen need not intend to falsely claim citizenship.
8 USCIS-PM K (2019)