A Haitian immigrant has had her U.S. citizenship revoked and sentenced to jail time after being found guilty of lying about her name to become naturalized.
Reports indicate Enite Alindor, also known as Odette Dureland, will have to spend the next five months in federal prison even as authorities moved to revoke her July 2012 naturalization as a U.S. citizen.
Switched names
According to court documents, Alindor, 55, a citizen of Haiti, applied for asylum with the then Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Miami in 1997. After the agency denied that application, the United States Immigration Court ordered her to be removed from the United States. Shortly thereafter, Alindor presented herself to the INS as Odettte Dureland and filed for asylum protection under that new identity.
The Winter Haven resident obscured the fact that she had previously applied for status in the United States as Enite Alindor and concealed the fact she was under a final order for removal from the United States.
Obtained citizenship in 2012
USCIS personnel, unaware of the Alindor identity and order of removal, approved Dureland for citizenship in July 2012 and she was naturalized as a U.S. citizen under that name.
However, under “Operation Second Look,” a nationwide investigation now being conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to review multiple cases across the United States of immigrants who gained citizenship by concealing from the INS their prior orders of deportation and orders of removal from the United States, Alindor’s true identity was revealed.
She was indicted last May, found guilty on March 2, 2018 and sentenced on June 7, 2018. The immigrant could now face deportation after she serves jail time to a country in which she has nothing.
