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US strips citizenship from couple in trade theft case, part of Trump immigration push

The couple used stolen exosome technology for profit and received nearly $1.5 million in transactions, the Justice Department said.

  • On March 30, federal Judge James E. Simmons Jr. of the Southern District of California revoked the U.S. citizenship of Li Chen and Yu Zhou, ruling their trade secret theft convictions demonstrated a lack of the "good moral character" required for American citizenship.
  • The couple, arriving on H-1B visas in 2007 and 2008, leveraged their roles as researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, to steal sensitive medical trade secrets related to exosome isolation for personal profit and benefit of the Chinese government.
  • Judge Simmons determined the pair's crimes involved "moral turpitude," rendering them ineligible for naturalization. Following guilty pleas for conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and wire fraud, the court ordered the duo to pay $2.6 million in restitution.
  • Attorney General Pam Bondi stated on Tuesday that these denaturalizations illustrate the Justice Department's focus on ensuring "citizenship remains a privilege to obtain, not a right to abuse," stripping the former researchers of legal protections afforded to U.S. citizens.
  • The Justice Department has identified denaturalization as a priority, securing 13 such revocations during President Donald Trump's second term with 16 cases pending. This enforcement aligns with the administration's broader policy to strictly define citizenship requirements.
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Reuters broke the news in United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
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