A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida found Tania Rosa Rodríguez, a 57-year-old Cuban, guilty this Wednesday of illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship by concealing her involvement in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud conspiracy during her naturalization process.
Rodríguez applied for citizenship in 2017 and became naturalized in 2018. In the forms, she stated that she had never committed a crime for which she had not been arrested, a claim that prosecutors demonstrated was false, according to the Department of Justice.
By then, the Cuban had already been involved in a scheme to defraud the healthcare system that had started before she submitted her naturalization application and continued even after she obtained U.S. citizenship.
The conspiracy lasted for seven years and generated approximately $4.6 million in fraudulent healthcare claims.
Rodríguez had previously been convicted in a federal court for her involvement in that scheme. The new proceedings focused on her concealment of that criminal behavior when she applied to become a U.S. citizen.
“The U.S. citizenship cannot be legally obtained through fraud and concealment. While participating in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to defraud the healthcare system, this defendant applied for U.S. citizenship and hid her criminal behavior from the government,” stated federal prosecutor Jason A. Reding Quiñones from the Southern District of Florida.
"A federal jury has found her guilty. Our office will rigorously enforce the laws that protect the integrity of our immigration and naturalization system," he added.
He could face up to 10 years in prison
The crime of illegal acquisition of citizenship or naturalization for which Rodríguez was found guilty carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
The sentence will be determined by a district judge, who must take into account the United States Sentencing Guidelines and other factors established by federal law.
In addition to the possible prison sentence, a ruling under the statute applied in this case may lead to the revocation of citizenship obtained illegally.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Miami, under the direction of Special Agent José R. Figueroa. The process is managed by the Border and Immigration Crime Enforcement Section (BICE), established in November 2025 to strengthen the prosecution of immigration crimes and transnational networks in South Florida.
More Cubans are facing denaturalization processes
The case of Rodríguez adds to other recent proceedings against Cubans accused of concealing criminal behavior during their immigration processes.
In March, a federal court , a resident of Hialeah, who was convicted in 2019 for her involvement in a Medicare fraud exceeding six million dollars. Authorities determined that she had also concealed her behavior when she became naturalized.
In July, the Department of Justice initiated a civil denaturalization process against Yosmaikel Rodríguez Pérez, who became a naturalized citizen in 2018 and is accused of concealing his alleged involvement in a Medicare fraud scheme amounting to nearly $886,000.
Currently, there are at least 29 pending cases related to the revocation of citizenship for Cubans in the United States, at a time when the Trump administration has intensified efforts against naturalized individuals who allegedly obtained that status by hiding crimes or other relevant facts.
For Rodríguez, the verdict now opens a scenario with two potentially serious consequences: a sentence of up to a decade in federal prison and the loss of the U.S. citizenship he obtained in 2018.
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