Denaturalized Liberian Man Self-Deports to Europe After Naturalization Fraud Sentence in North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina — The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced on October 19 that Cyril Domaquik Clemens, 72, a native of Liberia, self-deported on October 12, 2026, boarding a one-way flight from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) to Europe. In late September, a federal judge sentenced Clemens for naturalization fraud and revoked his naturalized U.S. citizenship, ordering him to leave the country at his own expense; about three weeks later, under the constant supervision of the U.S. Probation Office, he departed the United States.
Prosecutors said Clemens took the oath of citizenship on February 19, 2021. Investigators found that, in his naturalization application paperwork and interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), he knowingly made materially false statements under penalty of perjury, answering no to questions about involvement in forced sexual contact and about crimes for which he had not been arrested. State court records show that on April 3, 2023, in Durham County Superior Court, Clemens pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent liberties with a child, was sentenced to 16 to 29 months in prison, and was ordered to register as a sex offender; prosecutors said the offenses occurred between November 2011 and March 2022, before his naturalization application, but that state officers did not arrest him until after his naturalization ceremony, so USCIS did not know of them when it approved his application.
The case was investigated by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations agents assigned to the Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, together with USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security division, as part of Operation False Haven, an initiative targeting serious felons who fraudulently obtain immigration benefits. U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle announced the departure.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Raleigh 的北卡罗来纳州议会大厦东立面。Daderot 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons 发布。
