Miami woman faces denaturalization after jury says she lied about her criminal past

MIAMI — A naturalized Cuban American woman in Miami is expected to lose her U.S. citizenship after a federal jury found she lied on an application form about her criminal history defrauding the nation’s healthcare system for the elderly.

Tania Rosa Rodriguez, 57, was found guilty last week of fraudulently obtaining her citizenship in 2018 when she failed to disclose on the naturalization application that her pharmacy billed Medicare for prescription drugs that many patients didn’t order between 2015 and 2019.

In 2020, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay back $1.45 million to Medicare. Now Rodriguez faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing in late October after the federal jury in Miami found her guilty of unlawful procurement of citizenship. After her sentencing, Rodriguez could face prison time, denaturalization and deportation.

Federal prosecutors said Rodriguez stated on her naturalization form that she had never committed a crime for which she had not been arrested. At the time, however, Rodriguez was participating in a healthcare fraud conspiracy that began before she applied for naturalization and continued after she became a U.S. citizen, prosecutors said.

“American citizenship cannot be lawfully obtained through fraud and concealment,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement. “A federal jury has now held her accountable.”

Rodriguez is the latest naturalized citizen to be found guilty of concealing a criminal history while applying for U.S. citizenship in South Florida. The Trump administration, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice have made such targets a priority as part of their crackdown on illegal immigrants in the United States.

Last month, federal authorities announced an initiative to strip the U.S. citizenship of 10 naturalized foreign nationals with criminal records, including a Cuban American man in Miami who was convicted of committing Medicare fraud.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that officials were pursuing a four-count denaturalization case against Yosmaikel Rodriguez Perez, 45, who became a green card holder in 2004 and a U.S. citizen in 2018. The agency said that he had hidden his criminal behavior as the operator of a Miami medical clinic when he applied for U.S. citizenship.

In 2019, Rodriguez Perez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for submitting about $900,000 in false claims to Medicare for services and prescription drugs that patients didn’t need between 2014 and 2015. He was sentenced to one year and seven months in prison and ordered to pay back the money to the government agency.

“The complaint alleges that Rodriguez Perez illegally procured his citizenship because he lacked the good moral character required for naturalization given his crime of moral turpitude, unlawful acts, and false testimony under oath during the naturalization process; and because he procured U.S. citizenship through the concealment of material facts and willful misrepresentations,” the Justice Department statement says.

Rodriguez Perez is at least the seventh person who has faced denaturalization in Miami this year.

Others include Victor Perez Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador serving 15 years in prison for being a Cuban intelligence agent; and Philippe Bien-Aime, the Port-au-Prince-born former mayor of the city of North Miami, whom the U.S. government accused of using fake names and documents to become a citizen.

As part of its mass deportation agenda, the Department of Justice under Trump has been directed to prioritize denaturalizations. A July 2025 memo says it will focus on people who have committed war crimes, extrajudicial killings, terrorist acts, or who did not disclose crimes during their naturalization process. Authorities also plan to focus on the generally uncharted waters of pursuing denaturalization against people who committed crimes after becoming citizens.

Historically, the U.S. government’s pursuit of denaturalizations has been extremely rare. Data from Syracuse University researchers at TRAC shows that between January 2008 and April 2026, the U.S. government pursued 34 denaturalization cases. Between May and July alone, the Trump administration has pursued more than 30.

“We refuse to give a free pass to criminals who cheated their way into American citizenship,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the official who issued the July 2025 memo. “We’ve only scratched the surface — many more complaints are coming.”

Experts have said that the average citizen without criminal charges and convictions should not worry about the turbocharged denaturalization efforts, though they have created fear and anxiety in places like Miami-Dade County, where half the population is foreign-born.

Between May 1 and June 12, the Trump administration pursued 28 denaturalization cases. Among them, one was for securities fraud, another for marriage fraud, four for child molestation, six for false identity and immigration fraud, and two for narcotics distribution.

On July 20, the Justice Department also announced a total of 10 new denaturalization cases nationwide — including the case against Rodriguez Perez. Among the others are: a Mexican man convicted of grand theft, a Mexican priest who abused children, a Peruvian man who molested his minor stepdaughter, and a Pakistani national who used fake identities to obtain immigration benefits.

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