A federal judge in Miami has revoked the U.S. citizenship of Milagros Marileisis Acosta Torres, ruling that she illegally obtained it after concealing her involvement in a money-laundering conspiracy connected to money stolen from the Miccosukee Casino & Resort.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered the order on Oct. 14. Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga approved a consent judgment after Acosta Torres and the government jointly sought it the previous day, avoiding a trial.
As reported in July, the Justice Department had sought to cancel Acosta Torres’ naturalization through a civil complaint filed on June 8. The judgment revoked her naturalization retroactively to Nov. 6, 2015, the day she became a citizen, and cancelled her certificate of naturalization from that date.
Acosta Torres had falsely stated in her 2015 naturalization application and interview that she had not committed a crime or offense for which she had not been arrested. The Justice Department said those false statements were central to the finding that her citizenship had been illegally procured.
Her case grew out of a scheme in which her husband and several accomplices stole $5.3 million from the casino in western Miami-Dade by creating fraudulent credit vouchers. The scheme ran from January 2011 to May 2015, according to Casino.org.
Acosta Torres carried out financial transactions involving the stolen proceeds to conceal their fraudulent source and evade federal and state reporting requirements. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in January 2020 and was sentenced to six months in federal prison, with nearly $150,000 in restitution ordered.
The consent judgment requires Acosta Torres to surrender her naturalization certificate, U.S. passports, passport cards, enhanced driver’s licenses and other documents showing U.S. citizenship. It also bars her from claiming any rights, privileges or benefits under the citizenship documents issued after her 2015 naturalization.
The order did not direct her deportation or determine what immigration status she may hold following the loss of citizenship.
The case forms part of a larger 2026 denaturalization drive. The Justice Department had brought 40 civil denaturalization lawsuits nationwide as of August, targeting people accused of concealing crimes, using false identities or making false statements to obtain citizenship. Civil denaturalization requires clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence, and a later criminal conviction alone does not automatically void citizenship; prosecutors must connect the grounds for revocation to the naturalization process.
