Updated July 26, 2026, 11:34 a.m. ET
Revoking an immigrant’s citizenship has confirmed to be a pricey and controversial apply over time, however the Trump administration says a whole lot of individuals deserve to have their citizenship stripped anyway.
The plan requires ramping up the beforehand uncommon denaturalization process as a part of a broader immigration enforcement agenda, increasing a apply President Donald Trump began in his first time period.
So far, the Justice Department has moved to revoke the citizenship of almost 90 folks for the reason that begin of 2025. By October, the federal government is aiming to file a minimum of 250 denaturalization instances in federal courtroom.
Under federal legislation, the federal government can ask a choose to revoke the citizenship of somebody who obtained it by way of fraud or misrepresentation – corresponding to utilizing a false identification or concealing a disqualifying legal report in the course of the naturalization course of.
At its present charge, the administration is on tempo to pursue extra denaturalization instances than every other in latest fashionable American historical past. By comparability, the Biden administration introduced 24 instances over 4 years, whereas the federal government filed 102 denaturalization instances throughout Trump’s first time period, according to the DOJ.
“This is a major increase that we haven’t seen in decades,” mentioned Cassandra Robertson, a professor of legislation at Case Western Reserve University and an professional on denaturalization.
The Trump administration says it’s concentrating on criminals and fraudsters who shouldn’t have turn into residents within the first place, and framed the marketing campaign as an effort to protect the integrity of the naturalization course of.
“When you commit fraud during the naturalization process, you forfeit the right to keep your U.S. citizenship,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin mentioned in a latest assertion. “DHS is committed to ensuring we denaturalize and remove these fraudsters with every tool at our disposal.”
For a long time, the federal government solely pursued a handful of denaturalization instances every year, partly as a result of they require vital assets, are costly and might take years to resolve. The instances prosecutors did pursue largely focused nationwide safety threats, associates of terror teams and suspected conflict criminals.
But since Trump returned to workplace, his administration has moved to broaden using denaturalization. The DOJ’s civil division has been ordered to prioritize denaturalization, and company leaders have enlisted the assistance of U.S. lawyer’s places of work nationwide to increase case numbers. In a post on X on July 20, the White House described the marketing campaign because the “Largest Denaturalization Effort Ever.”
Former DOJ attorneys and immigration legislation consultants mentioned the instances being pursued below Trump largely do not seem out of step with earlier administrations. But they expressed issues that the hassle might divert assets from different priorities like prosecuting fraud or corruption instances. Some blasted the hassle as a tactic meant to intimidate the nation’s greater than 26 million naturalized residents.
“I don’t think this will make any dent in the administration’s deportation goals,” mentioned Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer, describing the denaturalization course of as slow-moving and, to a sure diploma, unscalable. “I think it does send a message that naturalized citizenship is impermanent and precarious.”
New administration, new denaturalization push
Within per week of taking workplace in 2025, Trump ordered “adequate resources” be devoted to denaturalizing some U.S. residents as a part of his broader immigration technique.
Months later, the DOJ issued a memo directing the agency’s civil division, which primarily handles denaturalization instances, to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.”
As of July 22, the Justice Department has filed a minimum of 89 denaturalization instances in federal courtroom, in accordance to a DOJ official – almost 4 instances as many as have been pursued throughout former President Joe Biden‘s time period in workplace.
Of the cases filed under Trump, the government has won at least 19, the DOJ official said. And while most cases were handled by the DOJ’s civil division, a significant portion have been taken up by U.S. attorney’s offices across the country – a shift in procedure that experts say highlights how the government is diverting resources to try to strip more people of their U.S. citizenship than ever before.
“Occasionally the civil division would companion with U.S. attorneys’ places of work, however that was uncommon,” said Young, who worked in the DOJ’s civil division from 2006 to 2019 under the Bush, Obama and first Trump administrations. “I do not keep in mind any instances being dealt with completely by U.S. attorneys’ places of work.”
Many of the pending cases involve allegations that the defendant lied or omitted details about their previous conduct that would have made them ineligible for U.S. citizenship.
In most cases, the Justice Department cited criminal convictions on serious charges such as sexual abuse, wire fraud and drug distribution. Others involve allegations that the defendant used a fake name during the naturalization process. In multiple cases, the government accused defendants of participating in war crimes or supporting foreign terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab.
Immigration experts and former DOJ lawyers said the government’s allegations so far don’t appear out of the ordinary but noted the surge in cases overall – the result of more resources being dedicated to pursuing denaturalization.
“On first blush, these cases don’t look all that different from cases that have been brought by previous administrations,” said Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor at Boston College who specializes in immigration.
He added that the DOJ appears to be targeting people who pleaded guilty to crimes committed before or during the naturalization process. This group, according to the government, should have been denied citizenship in the first place as they did not meet the “good ethical character” requirement.
A big shift
Between 1990 and 2017, an average of 11 denaturalization cases were filed per year, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The low number can largely be traced back to a 1967 ruling by the Supreme Court that says the government can only revoke citizenship in the case of fraud or “willful misrepresentation.”
That decision followed a Cold War effort to denaturalize those who the government perceived as political enemies, including labor leaders, journalists or critics of the government accused of being communists, said Amanda Frost, a University of Virginia law professor and immigration attorney. Through the two world wars and into the 1950s, some 22,000 immigrants saw their U.S. citizenship revoked, Frost said.
In the decades that followed, the government limited its prosecutions, focusing mainly on national security threats or people with ties to foreign terrorist groups.
“Republican and Democratic administrations post the Supreme Court decision understood the message of that case and understood that denaturalization was to be used sparingly and was not supposed to be a bread-and-butter tool of immigration enforcement,” Frost said.
Denaturalization cases did tick up under former President Barack Obama. At the time, new digital fingerprinting technology revealed that hundreds of people who had previously been ordered deported successfully naturalized using different identities. The Obama administration began a review aiming to denaturalize any citizen with ties to foreign terrorist organizations.
When Trump took office in 2016, his administration widened the program and broadened the scope of cases to include non-terror crimes such as fraud and violent offenses. The administration also set quotas. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the investigation of 700,000 naturalized citizens, with a goal of bringing some 1,600 cases to court.
While those goals weren’t ultimately met, the number of denaturalization cases brought by the DOJ jumped to an estimated 168 over four years, far outpacing the Obama and Bush administrations.
Denaturalization cases are long, costly and difficult to win
Among the reasons only a handful of denaturalization cases were pursued in previous decades is that they can take years to resolve and demand significant resources.
“It’s a cumbersome process,” mentioned Young, the previous litigator and founding father of Justice Connection. “There’s tons of evidence, intensive discovery and cases often go to trial or go up on appeal.”
The Trump administration’s denaturalization push comes because the Justice Department grapples with an exodus of government lawyers and a historic caseload stemming from authorized challenges to the White House’s deportation marketing campaign.
“They’re overwhelmed,” Young said of federal attorneys nationwide, adding that the denaturalization push could pull prosecutors away from critical work, such as litigating cases involving health care fraud, environmental crimes, corruption or national security violations.
And even when a judge sides with the government, that doesn’t always lead to deportation. Instead, defendants revert to their previous status, which is often a lawful permanent resident with the right to due process and a hearing before an immigration judge.
“To remove them you have to go through a whole separate process,” Young said.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration is set on pursuing as many cases as possible. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said on July 20 that the federal government has “only scratched the surface” and promised “many more complaints are coming.”
“We refuse to give a free pass to criminals who cheated their way into American citizenship,” Shumate said. “Under this administration, if you defrauded the naturalization process, you will face the full force of the Justice Department.”
Trump, GOP allies seek to expand denaturalization
A DOJ memo published in 2025 expands what denaturalization cases should be prioritized.
Some of the new language called for focus on individuals tied to “drug cartels,” and suspects of “fraud against private individuals, funds, or corporations.” One section of the memo directs staff to prioritize cases the civil division “determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.”
Critics fear that could open the door to prosecutions targeting the administration’s perceived political enemies or specific minority groups, especially given Trump’s threats to remove some of his adversaries from the country.
Young, who worked in the DOJ for nearly 20 years, said the memo’s language suggests the division will “target anyone for denaturalization it wants, whenever it chooses – regardless of whether a person poses a threat to the public, or engaged in egregious past conduct.”
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on the memo.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, should be removed from the country. In an interview with the New York Times in January, he said his administration was examining criteria for taking away U.S. citizenships with a particular eye for those of Somali descent.
The president also floated the false claim that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “here illegally” and vowed to “look at everything.” Two Republican congressmen, Jason Ogles and Randy Fine, have called on the Justice Department to investigate Mamdani’s naturalization documents.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, several Republicans introduced bills this year intended to expand denaturalization.
A bill from Texas Rep. Chip Roy seeks to denaturalize “advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.” A bill from Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, would create a path to denaturalize anyone convicted of an aggravated felony, fraud or espionage as long as 10 years after naturalization. Currently, the government cannot denaturalize someone for their actions after becoming a citizen except in a few rare circumstances.
While neither bill is expected to become law, experts said it demonstrates a growing desire among Republicans to widen the government’s ability to denaturalize some U.S. citizens.
Still, any large-scale denaturalization effort faces a significant obstacle: federal judges. Immigration attorneys and former Justice Department officials said they expect the courts to carefully review each case on its merits, as required by law.
“I would expect federal judges to be extremely careful with these cases,” said Kanstroom, of Boston College. “The case law is very clear that citizenship is a precious thing, and it should not be taken away lightly.”
Christopher Cann is a nationwide reporter for USA TODAY. Contact him by electronic mail at ccann@usatoday.com.
