Man's US citizenship revoked for lies about criminal record

A man who lied about his criminal record on an application to become a United States citizen will spend additional time prison and lose his citizenship.

Ruben Rosas-Avalos, 25, was born in Mexico but was living in Lee County.

Court records show that, in his application for naturalization – the process of becoming a US citizen – Rosas-Avalos claimed in February 2016 that he had never committed a crime. In response to the question “Have you ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit, a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?” he answered, “No.”

But Rosas-Avalos was convicted in March 2019 for rape of a child and indecent liberties with a child, offenses that took place both before and after his application for citizenship.

According to court records, Rosas-Avalos committed the crimes in 2015 and 2017, but he was not arrested until after he got his citizenship, so immigration officials did not know of his crimes at the time of his application.

He was convicted in March 2019 and sentenced to 26 years in prison on the rape and indecent liberties charges. He pleaded guilty in July to naturalization fraud and got an additional six months in prison for that offense.