A former New York City taxi driver serving a 20-year prison sentence for raping a passenger in his cab has lost his U.S. citizenship, after a federal court ruled he lied about the crime during his naturalization process. Gurmeet Singh, who is currently incarcerated at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, took his citizenship oath in October 2011 — just weeks before New York City police connected him to a brutal assault he had committed months earlier.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York finalized the judgment revoking Singh's naturalization on August 26, according to the Tampa Free Press. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that Singh “is no longer a U.S. citizen,” adding that “American citizenship is not a shield for criminals.” Blanche said Singh concealed a rape and kidnapping during the naturalization process, and that the Justice Department “will continue to move expeditiously on denaturalization referrals.”
A Sting Involving a Cup of Water
The case traces back to May 2011, when a 26-year-old woman fell asleep in the back seat of Singh's taxicab while traveling from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to her apartment in Manhattan's East Village, according to details reported by the Financial Express. Singh threatened the passenger with a knife and raped her; she escaped the vehicle at dawn after he drove her to a secluded side street. He took his oath of citizenship five months later, in October 2011, while the case remained unsolved.
NYPD investigators eventually caught up with him using an unrelated cover story. As detailed by FindLaw, undercover officers posed as Taxi and Limousine Commission inspectors in January 2012 and invited Singh to a meeting about a separate investigation. During that meeting, they gave him a cup of water — and matched the DNA left on it to evidence from the May 2011 assault. Singh was arrested shortly after.
A Rejected Plea Deal and a Jury Conviction
In March 2014, Singh turned down a 10-year prison plea deal offered by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and instead took his case to trial, per reporting from the Brooklyn News Service. Two months later, New York prosecutors convicted him of first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping, and he was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison — a term nearly double what prosecutors had originally offered.
The Justice Department's civil complaint, filed against Singh on February 2, 2026, argued that federal law requires naturalization applicants to disclose all criminal conduct and demonstrate good moral character, regardless of whether they were ever arrested for it. During his October 3, 2011, naturalization interview — 16 days before he took his citizenship oath — Singh testified falsely under oath when asked whether he had ever committed a crime for which he had not been arrested, according to a Department of Justice court filing.
Singh's Long Immigration History
Singh arrived in the United States in February 1992 on a temporary visitor visa valid for six months, then remained in the country without legal status for eight years, according to the dossier of case facts drawn from the Justice Department. He obtained a green card in June 2000 through a family-based immigration petition before ultimately naturalizing in 2011. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said Singh unlawfully obtained his U.S. citizenship by concealing his criminal acts.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the court judgment requires Singh to surrender his wrongfully obtained citizenship. Under the terms of the finalized order, Singh must hand over his U.S. passport and Certificate of Naturalization to federal authorities by September 16. Government attorneys Christopher Lyerla and Layaliza Soloveichik handled the denaturalization case for the department.
No Judicial Discretion Once Fraud Is Proven
The government argued — and the court agreed — that it had grounds to revoke Singh's citizenship. Under Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Fedorenko v. United States, federal judges have no equitable discretion to withhold a denaturalization judgment once the government proves that citizenship was obtained through willful misrepresentation, according to the Department of Justice court filing underlying the case.
Singh's case is part of a broader surge in federal denaturalization enforcement. Internal USCIS guidance has instructed field offices to submit between 100 and 200 denaturalization referrals per month to the Justice Department for fiscal year 2026, according to Newsweek — a dramatic jump compared with just over 120 total denaturalization cases filed nationwide between 2017 and 2025. The administration has said it plans to pursue denaturalization proceedings wherever permitted by law and supported by evidence.
Losing his citizenship does not mean Singh will be immediately deported. Because denaturalization is a civil judicial process rather than a removal proceeding, his legal status reverts to that of a lawful permanent resident — the status he held before naturalizing — leaving him eligible for separate administrative deportation proceedings before an immigration judge once his prison term concludes, as Hoodline has reported in similar cases. Singh, who was born in India, is still years away from completing his 20-year sentence at Shawangunk Correctional Facility.
