These questions, says immigration lawyer Ira Kurzban, are requested to see whether or not an applicant obtained their residence validly, a prerequisite for citizenship. US immigration authorities have, he says, change into “very exacting” on this level over the previous 10 years.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Service didn’t reply to an inquiry about whether or not types utilized by its predecessor company, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, requested precisely these questions on the time Musk would have been utilizing them, however consultants say he would have been requested substantively comparable questions, because the related legislation hasn’t modified.
“These grounds of deportability have been round for many years,” says Yale-Loehr, “and the types again then in all probability had comparable or equivalent questions.”
An immigrant who makes misrepresentations as a part of the naturalization course of can even face felony publicity: Underneath US federal legislation, making a false assertion to or concealing a fabric reality from the federal government carries a possible penalty of 5 years in jail.
Greg Siskind, a number one immigration lawyer, doesn’t disagree that the legislation as written may expose somebody who lied about working with out authorization to lack of citizenship, however says that as a sensible matter, it might not quantity to a fabric reality.
“If he had disclosed it, would which have prevented him from getting later immigration advantages?” he asks. “The reply to that’s in all probability no.”
Siskind nonetheless believes that there are severe questions right here about, amongst different issues, the character of the skilled relationship between the Musk brothers. And Musk’s previous is very related to the clearances he reportedly holds as a prime authorities contractor with an intensive portfolio of holdings associated to nationwide safety.
Even when Musk had been discovered to have violated the legislation, he wouldn’t be summarily deported. “It’s typically fairly troublesome to revoke somebody’s citizenship for comparatively minor standing violations which occurred a long time earlier,” says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow on the American Immigration Council, who provides that that is “a very good factor given how straightforward it may be to violate arcane immigration guidelines.”
Underneath Trump, although, a number of consultants identified, the federal government did much more to denaturalize residents than it had beforehand. As Frost wrote in 2019, within the first yr and a half of the Trump administration, USCIS opened an workplace devoted to denaturalization, investigated 1000’s of residents, and reported 95 to the Division of Justice with a advice for deportation. (From 1990 to 2017, there was an common of simply 11 denaturalization circumstances per yr.)
Even when USCIS had strong proof that Musk had damaged the legislation, it will, consultants say, not deal with the matter administratively, however reasonably may refer it to a US lawyer’s workplace. Prosecutors, who’ve broad discretion to take up or decline circumstances, may then proceed, or not, as they noticed match.
Most of the open questions right here may very well be cleared up by Musk authorizing the discharge of his immigration data underneath the Freedom of Data Act. His lawyer, Spiro, didn’t reply to a query asking whether or not he would achieve this.
