Jeh Johnson on Old Dominion Attack: It's 'Very Cumbersome' to Take Away Citizenship, I'd Rather Suspect Be in Jail

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed the terrorist attack at Old Dominion University that was carried out by a naturalized citizen who had been convicted of supporting terrorists and said that there is “a very cumbersome process to take away somebody’s citizenship.” But “I’d rather see this person languish in jail, frankly, U.S. citizen or not.”

Co-host Bill Melugin asked, “There’s been a lot of talk about the attempted terror attack at — or the actual terror attack at Old Dominion University yesterday. The shooter, naturalized into a U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, was convicted in 2017 of supporting ISIS, went to prison, shockingly, just for seven years, got out. That’s a separate topic. What a lot of people are asking is how was this guy not stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported? As you’re aware, under U.S. law, right now, it’s really hard to denaturalize a U.S. citizen unless they committed some type of fraud during the immigration process. Does that need to change? Should somebody who’s convicted of supporting terrorism, should that just be an immediate you’re denaturalized, and you’re out of the country?”

Johnson answered, “You’re right. It’s a very cumbersome process to take away somebody’s citizenship. I’d rather see this person languish in jail, frankly, U.S. citizen or not. Good question, somebody’s convicted of a terrorist-related offense, why only seven years? Especially with federal sentencing guidelines, mandatory minimums, I think a lot of questions need to be asked there.”

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