Nevada Man Charged with Naturalization Fraud After Hiding Two Sexual Assaults on Citizenship Application

What Happened

Kevin Jesus King was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on June 15, 2018, at a ceremony in Reno, Nevada. According to court documents cited by Fox News, he had already committed one sexual assault before submitting his citizenship application and a second one before the naturalization ceremony took place.

On his 2018 application, King was asked whether he had ever committed or assisted in committing a crime for which he was not arrested, and whether he had ever lied to government officials. Both times, he checked "No."

On or about July 25, 2024, King pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. Court records state the offenses occurred on or about July 25, 2017, and March 18, 2018. The first occurred before he applied for citizenship, the second before the naturalization ceremony.

The Justice Department has now charged him with naturalization fraud. The indictment does not specify King's country of origin.

The Charges and What They Carry

Fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison and can result in automatic revocation of citizenship, according to U.S. immigration law.

Sigal Chattah, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, stated: "United States citizenship is one of the most meaningful privileges our Nation can bestow, and it cannot be obtained through lies, concealment, or fraud. As alleged, this defendant hid serious felony conduct while seeking the rights and benefits of citizenship."

The charges are allegations at this stage. King has not been convicted of naturalization fraud.

Broader Denaturalization Push

This case fits into a documented pattern of enforcement action from the Justice Department under the Trump administration. Earlier in June 2026, DOJ announced it was moving to revoke the citizenship of 17 people across 13 countries who allegedly obtained naturalization through fraud or concealment of serious crimes, including child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and large-scale financial fraud, according to Fox News.

No independent verification of those 17 cases from a non-Fox source was available in the reporting reviewed for this article. The underlying policy itself, denaturalizing people who obtained citizenship through fraud, has bipartisan legal grounding. The statute has been on the books for decades, and courts across administrations have upheld denaturalization in proven fraud cases.

The Legitimate Concern About Enforcement Scope

Civil liberties advocates and immigration attorneys have raised concerns about expanded denaturalization campaigns. The naturalization process involves documented interviews and disclosures, but the accuracy of what was asked, what was disclosed, and what the applicant understood can be disputed years later. Revoking citizenship is an irreversible consequence, and if the government pursues weak cases aggressively, it strips people of a status they may have held for years or decades.

In King's case, however, he pleaded guilty to both sexual assaults in 2024. Those crimes are established, not alleged. The fraud question is whether he knew he was required to disclose them and deliberately chose not to. Citizenship applications ask directly whether the applicant has ever committed an unreported offense, and he checked "No" while having committed rape. No charges against King have been dismissed, and no evidence of a disputed disclosure has surfaced in available reporting.

What the Sources Don't Tell Us

Both sources for this story are Fox News, which means the framing is uniformly favorable to the prosecution. The coverage includes no comment from King's defense attorney, no detail about his immigration history prior to naturalization, and no independent legal analysis of whether the denaturalization charge is likely to succeed in court given the 2024 guilty plea to the underlying crimes.

The indictment also does not name King's country of origin. That detail matters for any eventual deportation proceeding if he is denaturalized and convicted.

What Comes Next

King's naturalization fraud case will now move through federal court in the District of Nevada. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and automatic loss of citizenship. A separate question is whether he would then face deportation, which depends on his immigration status prior to naturalization and whether a viable order of removal could be entered. Neither issue was addressed in the available charging documents.