Federal authorities are accusing former North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime of lying during the naturalization process in order to become a U.S. citizen \u2014 allegations that could now cost him that citizenship.<\/p>\n
According to a 13-page civil complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and reviewed exclusively by NBC6, the government claims Bien-Aime \u201cwillfully misrepresented his identity and immigration history throughout the naturalization process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Court documents state that Department of Homeland Security records \u2014 including fingerprint comparisons \u2014 show that the person who naturalized as Philippe Bien-Aime is the same individual who was previously ordered removed from the United States under the name Philippe Janvier.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that on July 31, 2000, an immigration judge determined that Janvier gained entry into the United States by fraud, specifically through the use of a photo-switched passport. The judge ordered him removed to Haiti.<\/p>\n
However, the filing states there is no indication he ever left the United States as ordered.<\/p>\n
The complaint further alleges that Bien-Aime was not eligible to obtain a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen because his marriage was invalid.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors accuse him of bigamy, claiming his Haitian divorce certificate was counterfeit and fraudulent.<\/p>\n
Bien-Aime, originally from Haiti, was elected mayor of North Miami in 2019. Most recently, he ran unsuccessfully for the Miami-Dade County Commission.<\/p>\n
NBC6 went to his North Miami home, but no one answered the door. When reached by phone, Bien-Aime declined to comment.<\/p>\n
His attorney, Peterson St. Philippe, provided the following statement: \u201cWe are aware of the government\u2019s filing and are in the process of reviewing it. We intend to respond through the appropriate legal channels. As this is a pending litigation, we will not be commenting further at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the government succeeds in its effort to revoke Bien-Aime\u2019s citizenship, it could raise legal and political questions about his time in office.<\/p>\n
North Miami\u2019s city code states that candidates seeking office must be qualified electors \u2014 meaning they must be citizens eligible to vote and registered at the time.<\/p>\n
To register to vote, a person must be a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
NBC6 has reached out to the City of North Miami for comment and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal authorities are accusing former North Miami Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime of lying during the naturalization process in order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,2033],"class_list":{"0":"post-161857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news","11":"tag-only-on-6"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}