S. 3606 — Fraud Accountability Act

This section establishes a new ground of deportability under INA §237(a)(2)(A)(vi)—which lists criminal offenses rendering aliens deportable—for any alien convicted of a crime involving fraud committed against a private individual, fund, corporation, or government entity, notwithstanding the $10,000 loss threshold required for such fraud offenses to qualify as aggravated felonies under INA §101(a)(43)(M)(i). (Thus, the change expands deportability to fraud convictions below that threshold.)

This section expands mandatory detention under INA §236(c) (8 U.S.C. 1226(c)) to aliens described in INA §237(a)(2)(A)(vi), in addition to those previously covered in §237(a)(2)(A)(ii) [multiple criminal convictions involving moral turpitude], (A)(iii) [aggravated felonies], (B) [controlled substances], (C) [firearms trafficking], or (D) [domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and other serious crimes]. (As background, INA §236(c) requires DHS to detain specified criminal and terrorist aliens pending removal proceedings without bond or parole; thus, this adds a new criminal deportability ground—likely created elsewhere in the bill—to those triggering detention.)

This section amends Section 340 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1451) to require any U.S. court convicting a naturalized citizen of a criminal offense described in INA Section 237(a)(2)—i.e., deportability grounds such as crimes involving moral turpitude, controlled substance offenses, multiple convictions with aggregate sentences of five or more years, or aggravated felonies—to revoke the order admitting the person to citizenship and cancel the certificate of naturalization. It grants such courts jurisdiction to take these actions notwithstanding 28 U.S.C. 1331 (federal question jurisdiction). (Thus, denaturalization occurs automatically in the underlying criminal proceeding rather than through a separate civil action.)

This section establishes the effective date of the Act and its amendments as the date of enactment. It further provides that amendments made by section 4 apply to fraud committed by any alien on or after September 30, 1996, against a private individual, fund, corporation, or government entity, if the alien was not arrested, charged, or indicted for such conduct before enactment.