The Justice Department has filed a denaturalization action in the Southern District of New York against Hassan Sherjil Khan, a native of Pakistan who pleaded guilty to child sex crimes and is serving a 17-year prison sentence, the department announced.
According to the complaint, Khan began communicating online with an 11-year-old girl around 2007 or 2008. Over the following years, the Justice Department said, Khan repeatedly coerced and enticed the victim — who was barely in her teens — to send him sexually explicit images and to engage in explicit conduct via live video chats. Khan also traveled abroad to engage in sexual acts with the victim when she was 15 years old, according to the department.
Despite that conduct, Khan applied for U.S. citizenship in August 2012 — just four months after traveling abroad for sexual contact with the victim — without disclosing it, according to the complaint. He was naturalized in May 2013. After Khan obtained citizenship, the victim disclosed the abuse, and he was arrested in September 2015 and charged with coercing and enticing a minor, sexual exploitation of a child, sexual exploitation of a child outside the United States, and receipt of child pornography, the Justice Department said.
At the time of his arrest, Khan was working as a physician.
Khan pleaded guilty on Jan. 14, 2016, to coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He remains incarcerated, the department said.
The denaturalization complaint alleges Khan illegally procured his naturalization by lacking the good moral character required under immigration law — having committed a crime involving moral turpitude — and by giving false testimony about his conduct during naturalization proceedings. The complaint also alleges he obtained citizenship through willful misrepresentation or concealment of material facts.
“Naturalization and U.S. citizenship will not protect sexual predators from the consequences of their horrific acts,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. “If you fail to disclose serious crimes while seeking naturalization, the government will discover your lies and revoke your ill-gotten U.S. citizenship.”
The litigation is being handled jointly by the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The underlying sex crimes were investigated by the FBI’s New York field office.
The denaturalization allegations are claims only, and no determination of liability has been made regarding Khan’s naturalization, the department said.
This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times’ AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times’ original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.
