A new naturalization fraud has surfaced in Ohio, where a former medical doctor lied on his citizenship form and became a US citizen, suppressing his past involvement in poisoning his pregnant girlfriend with an abortion drug. According to court documents, Alhallaq was born in Kuwait and entered the United States on an H-1B visa in 2006. He filed an application to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2011 and was approved.Alhallaq began work as an internal medicine doctor in Northeast Ohio in 2012. In December 2014, he poisoned his girlfriend’s oatmeal with an abortion drug after she became pregnant with his child, to terminate the pregnancy without her knowledge.Several years later, the victim learned the truth about the incident and reported him to police. On March 18, 2021, Alhallaq was indicted and charged with one count of attempted murder and two counts of felonious assault for trying to purposely cause the termination of the victim’s pregnancy in 2014 causing serious, physical harm to her and her unborn child. In September 2021, Alhallaq pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.Before Alhallaq was sentenced for those charges in 2021, he submitted a Form N-400 to become a naturalized US citizen. He submitted his application in 2017 and, on the application, answered “no” to the following questions:
- Were you ever involved in any way with badly hurting, or trying to hurt a person on purpose?
- Have you ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit a crime or offense for which you were not arrested?
Alhallaq was interviewed by an immigration officer in 2018 to review the answers he submitted on his Form N-400. Under oath, Alhallaq verbally confirmed his answers to both questions as “no,” matching those he initially submitted by mail. On May 4, 2018, he became a naturalized US citizen.Alhallaq knowingly committed acts of attempted murder and felonious assault by attempting to unlawfully terminate his girlfriend’s pregnancy, but he attested to federal officials that the information he provided was true and was subsequently granted US citizenship. Alhallaq faces a maximum of up to 10 years in prison for naturalization fraud and faces denaturalization because of his conviction.
