Neeraj Sharma, a 50-year-old, India-born CEO, is among the 17 naturalized US citizens facing charges of H-1B visa fraud and loss of US citizenship. The development is part of US President Donald Trump’s largest denaturalization campaign in decades. The US Department of Justice announced on June 8 that naturalised citizens have obtained citizenship through fraud. The department has now filed for the denaturalization of these citizens charged with concealing and misrepresentation. Some have even been convicted of violent and sexual crimes, including child sexual abuse and drug trafficking, immigration fraud, and wire fraud.
Who is Neeraj Sharma?
Neeraj is an India-born businessman and the owner of Magnavision LLC, a staffing company in New Jersey. The Justice Department has charged him with signing and filing fraudulent H-1B visa petitions. These petitions, according to the charges, falsely claimed to employ foreign workers by a major global financial institution. According to reports, Neeraj forged the signatures of the executives and fabricated the supporting documents for the visa petitions.
He was convicted of visa fraud that he committed between 2015 and 2017. DOJ is pushing to revoke his citizenship, alleging that he hid the unlawful activities from the US authorities and naturalized through misrepresentation of material.
This Department of Justice has filed DENATURALIZATION ACTIONS in various U.S. district courts against 17 individuals accused of serious offenses.
“When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences. Criminal aliens are lying about… pic.twitter.com/mhr1D9xxT8
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 8, 2026
Reports say that Sharma applied for US citizenship in 2017. He made several misleading claims under oath, including
that he had never committed an offence for which he had never been arrested
that he never provided false info to the US officials
that he never lied to obtain immigration and US visa benefits
The other 16 individuals to lose their US citizenship include a Haitian immigrant. He has allegedly sexually abused his daughter. Another person is a man from the former Yugoslavia. He has been convicted of abusing a minor.
US immigration crackdown
The latest action against the 17 people for visa and immigration fraud is a part of a larger crackdown on illegal migrants in US. During his second term, US President Donald Trump has intensified his efforts to increase the use of denaturalisation proceedings.
Trump admin has invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act under which the authorities have the power to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens if fraud ow wrongdoings are found in obtaining US citizenship. There have been only 300 denaturalization cases between 1990 and 2017. However, under Trump the frequency of revoking US citizenship has surged. The DOJ last month only asked federal courts to revoke the citizenship of 12 immigrants. According to reports, DOJ has identified 384 foreign-born Americans it wants to denaturalize.
“Officials were pursuing the highest volume of denaturalisation referrals in history,” the New York Times quoted a DOJ spokesperson.
Also Read: US Court Strikes Down Trump’s Rs 95,00,000 H-1B Fee: Why It’s Big News For Indians
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
