ILLINOIS
The federal government moved to strip away naturalized citizen status of a convicted Al Qaeda conspirator, officials announced Monday.
The civil petition against Iyman Faris, a native of Pakistan, states that the 47-year-old naturalized citizen, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship, officials said.
Faris is currently serving a criminal sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois for conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, al Qaeda, and for providing material support to al Qaeda.
In October 2003, a federal court in Virginia sentenced Faris to 20 years in prison, according to authorities.
The Ohio truck driver admitted that he plotted with senior operatives of Al Qaeda to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, according to a New York Times 2003 story.
Faris tried to withdraw his earlier guilty plea, saying he had admitted a role in the plot only to fool the F.B.I. and secure a book deal for himself, according to the New York Times.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized U.S. citizen’s citizenship may be revoked, and his certificate of naturalization canceled if the naturalization was illegally obtained by misrepresentation or hiding facts.
Faris twice testified falsely to get immigrant status. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on Dec. 16, 1999.