Feds move to strip US citizenship from Haiti-born former mayor of North Miami

Syra Ortiz Blanes and Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald on Feb 19, 2026

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MIAMI — The Trump administration is moving to denaturalize a former mayor of North Miami as part of its aggressive campaign to strip citizenship from people federal prosecutors allege committed immigration fraud.

Records show that the Department of Justice filed a denaturalization case in U.S. District Court in Miami against Philippe Bien-Aime, a U.S citizen who was born in Haiti, on Feb. 18. The docket is restricted because of privacy-related protocols.

Prosecutors filed marriage, naturalization, divorce and birth certificates as part of the docket evidence, as well as a deportation order and Bien-Aime’s application to become a citizen. They also identify Bien-Aime as Jean Philippe Janvier. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush, is presiding over the case.

NBC6, which first reported the story, obtained the complaint, which claims that in 2000 an immigration judge ordered Bien-Aime, under the name Jean Philippe Janvier, deported for entering the U.S. with a fraudulent passport. There is no evidence Bien-Aime left the United States at that time. The complaint states that Bien-Aime obtained citizenship through marriage, even though he was not eligible to do so.

On a phone call on Thursday evening with a Herald reporter, Bien-Aime declined to comment and referred the matter to his immigration lawyer, Peterson St. Philippe. In an emailed statement, Philippe told the Herald he was not in a position to provide any detailed comment at this time.

“We believe it is appropriate to address the allegations through the judicial process rather than through public commentary. We trust that any reporting will reflect that the matter remains unresolved and that no findings have been made,” St. Philippe said.

North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme said he and his administration were unaware of the claims against Bien-Aime, let alone that he had ever had another identity.

“I am shocked,” he said. Half of the population of North Miami is foreign born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the city has a large Haitian population.

The move to denaturalize Port-au-Prince born Bien-Aime is part of a larger policy of the Trump administration to aggressively pursue the denaturalization of immigrants. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate issued a memo in 2025 ordering the Justice Department’s civil division to prioritize denaturalization cases. In particular, the DOJ prioritizes people deemed “sufficiently important to pursue;” national security threats; gang members and financial fraudsters, among others.

Historically, denaturalizing an immigrant who became a U.S. citizen has been a move rarely pursued by the federal government. Between 1990 and 2017, the government filed denaturalization cases against an average of 11 people per year, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Denaturalization case referrals skyrocketed under the first Trump administration, the group said.

J.C. Planas, an election attorney and general counsel for the Democratic Party, said the complaint raises several questions and points at the larger issue of the Trump administration haphazardly targeting people in their quest to denaturalize citizens.

“This is some sort of micro targeting; this is very concerning,” he said. “This just seems like a mother excuse to get rid of Black and brown people.”

He also raised the concern of “selective enforcement.” Planas said typically, denaturalization efforts are “reserved for violent offenders, not someone who may have fibbed to stay in the United States.”

On his campaign website, Bien-Aime indicates that he arrived in Canada before settling in the United States. He worked in the automotive industry before becoming an entrepreneur in 2006.

Bien-Aime successfully ran for North Miami mayor in 2019, but resigned to run for Miami-Dade County District 2 Commissioner in 2022. He lost that race to community activist Marleine Bastien. Before becoming mayor, he served as a North Miami councilman since 2013.