Bangladesh man sentenced for immigration fraud

ORLANDO, Fla. – A citizen and national of Bangladesh was sentenced Monday to two years of supervised release for attempted procurement of naturalization unlawfully in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1425(a). This was following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), assisted by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

According to court documents, Alauddin Ahmed Chowdhury, 65, a citizen and national of Bangladesh, first arrived in the United States unlawfully in 1993. After arriving in the U.S., he applied for asylum using a fraudulent name and date of birth, along with presenting a forged document to the Immigration Judge. In 1997, the immigration judge denied asylum and ordered the defendant be deported from the U.S. Then, in 2006, while in Bangladesh, the defendant filed an application for admission to the U.S. as an immigrant, using his real name and without disclosing any previous residence in the U.S. The U.S. Department of State approved his visa application and the defendant was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 2007. When the defendant applied for naturalization on Sept. 16, 2013, he failed to disclose his alias, previous order of deportation, or previous presence in the United States.

This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Christina R. Downes, on assignment from the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, ICE, in the Middle District Florida.