The Trump administration plans to aggressively expand efforts to strip some foreign-born Americans of their U.S. citizenship, according to a recent memo from the Department of Justice (DOJ). Past denaturalization efforts focused on people who fraudulently obtained citizenship. However, under the new initiative, a DOJ official wrote, the government will “maximally pursue” the removal of naturalized citizens who run afoul of the law.
The government will file civil denaturalization actions against non-native citizens who are accused — but not necessarily convicted — of certain crimes, according to the memo. And while government lawyers will be empowered to target naturalized citizens “who pose a potential danger to national security,” the memo did not specifically say what constitutes a threat.
Those who lose their citizenship may be deported to their countries of origin.
The emphasis on denaturalization follows the administration’s attempts to deport millions of immigrants illegally in the U.S. and to prevent refugees and others seeking political asylum from entering the United States. The existence of the June 11 DOJ memo was first reported by NPR.
‘All cases permitted by law’
The DOJ memo lays out five enforcement priorities for the agency’s civil division. All reflect executive orders that President Donald Trump signed shortly after taking office in January.
Unbiased. Straight Facts.TM
About 25 million naturalized citizens live in the United States, with more than 40% became citizens over the past 15 years.
Besides denaturalization, the priorities include suing companies doing business with the federal government over their diversity, equity and inclusion programs; ending antisemitism; “protecting women and children” by targeting doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies engaged in gender-affirming care; and ending sanctuary jurisdictions.
The memo does not identify a quota for denaturalization cases or set a timetable for deporting more naturalized citizens.
During the Red Scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s, the government stripped the citizenship of about 20,000 people a year who had not disclosed previous communist ties on their citizenship applications.
Cases dropped to a trickle after Supreme Court decisions greatly limited the practice. However, the number increased under former President Barack Obama, when officials targeted immigration fraud cases possibly linked to terrorist organizations.
About 25 million naturalized citizens lived in the United States as of 2023, according to the Migration Policy Institute. More than 40% became citizens after 2010.
The DOJ says it will seek to denaturalize citizens who represent a “nexus” to terrorism and espionage; those who are affiliated with criminal gangs; those who are engaged in human trafficking, sex offenses or violent crime; and those who committed fraud against government programs like Medicaid or Medicare.
In addition, naturalized citizens with pending criminal cases could be deported, even before they’re convicted. The memo, written by Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division, gives government lawyers wide latitude to begin denaturalization proceedings.
The categories listed in his memo, Shumate wrote, “do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case. The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by evidence.”
No data is available on the number of denaturalization cases that have already been opened. But on June 13, a federal judge in Louisiana revoked the citizenship of Elliott Duke, a U.S. military veteran originally from the United Kingdom. He was convicted in 2014 — a year after becoming a citizen — of distributing child sexual abuse material. The DOJ says he did not disclose his criminal activity when immigration officers interviewed him during the naturalization process.
Critics see potential for abuse
Immigration advocates say the denaturalization process can easily be abused.
“To see that this administration is plotting out how they’re going to expand its use in ways that we have not seen before is very shocking and very concerning,” Sameera Hafiz, policy director of the Immigration Legal Resource Center, told NPR.
One congressman has already asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to revoke the citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, over rap lyrics he wrote in 2017. The lyrics allegedly praised leaders of an organization that supported Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group. Mamdani, 33, was born in Uganda and moved to the United States with his family as a child. He became a naturalized citizen in 2018.
On June 25, the day after the Democratic primary, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Bondi that Mamdani had lied on his citizenship application and should be denaturalized and deported. Bondi has not publicly responded.
‘Reprehensible behavior’
Increased denaturalization is supported by groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the organization behind Project 2025, the blueprint for a conservative overhaul of the federal government.
“When we extend the opportunity for naturalization to aliens, we are granting them a great privilege – the privilege of becoming a U.S. citizen,” Hans Von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the foundation, told NPR.
He added, “Anyone who has abused the privilege of the opportunity of becoming a U.S. citizen should have that citizenship revoked when they engage in such reprehensible behavior.”
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Alan Judd
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://straightarrownews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
