U.S. v. Farhane: Citizens Must Be Notified When Citizenship is at Risk

                A Second Circuit en banc panel recently decided that naturalized citizens must be notified if their guilty plea could put their citizenship at risk.  In doing so, the court ruled in favor of Abdulrahman Farhane, a 70-year-old man from Morocco who immigrated to the US after winning a visa lottery. Charged with conspiracy to launder money and lying to federal agents in 2006, Farhane pleaded guilty after his counsel advised him that it was his best option.  However, his counsel did not disclose that, by pleading guilty, Farhane gave the government the power to revoke his citizenship. “Today we hold that the Sixth Amendment entitles a naturalized U.S. citizen facing the risk of deportation following denaturalization to no less protection than a noncitizen facing the risk of deportation,” wrote Judge Susan L. Carney.[1]