The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to crack down on foreign-born Americans found to have committed fraud or other infractions that put them at risk of having their citizenship taken away.
As part of the crackdown, the U.S. Department of Justice has identified nearly 400 naturalized U.S. citizens whom prosecutors will try to denaturalize, with more to follow, according to an April 23 report from the New York Times. The Justice Department is assigning the cases to prosecutors in dozens of U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country, the Times reported.
The crackdown comes nearly a year after the Justice Department issued a June 11 memo that pushed for attorneys within the department’s civil division to “prioritize investigations and enforcement” of the denaturalization of individuals who it said “illegally procured” U.S. citizenship.
Citing an anonymous official familiar with the announcement, The New York Times reported that Senior Justice Department officials told their colleagues during a meeting in April that civil litigators in 39 regional U.S. Attorney’s offices would be assigned to the denaturalization cases of 384 individuals.
The two sources confirmed to The New York Times that it was part of the Trump administration’s plan to ramp up denaturalizations. It was not clear why the department is targeting the 384 people.
Matthew Tragesser, a Justice Department spokesperson, said in that statement the Justice Department was moving at “warp speed” in ensuring “fraudsters are held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent.”
“The Department of Justice is laser-focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process. Under the leadership of President Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Department is pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history, thanks to close partnerships (with immigration agencies),” Tragesser said.
How do you lose citizenship?
It’s very difficult for the government to revoke citizenship from a naturalized U.S. citizen.
A person who received U.S. citizenship through naturalization can have their citizenship revoked either through civil proceedings or as a result of a criminal conviction related to how the person obtained citizenship, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
“If someone was unlawfully naturalized or misrepresented or concealed facts during the naturalization process, civil or criminal proceedings must be instituted to revoke the naturalization and the status of the person as a citizen. Once the naturalization is revoked, the court also cancels the person’s Certificate of Naturalization,” according to USCIS.
The U.S. Attorney’s office is responsible for filing the revocation of naturalization through the U.S. District Court system, according to USCIS.
USCIS is a federal agency under the Department of Homeland Security that oversees “lawful immigration” and citizenship through naturalization, according to its website.
The federal government holds a “high burden of proof” when attempting to denaturalize a person, according to USCIS.
In civil cases of denaturalization, the proof has to be clear, convincing, and must “not leave the issue in doubt,” according to USCIS.
Naturalized U.S. citizens can lose their citizenship through civil proceedings on grounds of “illegal procurement of naturalization” or “concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation” during the naturalization process, according to USCIS.
Why critics consider Trump’s crackdown a ‘dangerous escalation’
Some critics say the Trump administration’s crackdown is intended to spread fear among the more than 20 million foreign-born Americans in the U.S. who obtained citizenship through naturalization.
“This is a dangerous escalation & every American should understand why,” Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, posted on X and Bluesky.
“Genuine fraud has always been prosecuted,” Johnson wrote, pointing out that between 1990 and 2017, the government filed an average of 11 denaturalization cases per year, stripping citizenship from people who committed fraud, such as sham marriages or hid their participation in war crimes.
“Now DHS has been ordered to refer up to 200 cases a month and DOJ officials are calling 384 cases just ‘the first wave,’ pulling civil litigators off health care fraud & civil rights enforcement, to hunt naturalized Americans instead,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson called it “yet another quota-driven immigration policy” based on quantity, not quality.
“This is dangerous & creates two tiers of citizenship. If you were born here, your status is secure. If you naturalized, even decades ago, even after passing extensive vetting, biometrics, background checks, civics tests, you now live with a question mark over your head,” Johnson wrote. Citizenship isn’t a probationary status the government can revoke when a new administration decides it doesn’t like you.”
Who could potentially lose their citizenship?
According to the June 11 Justice Department memo, the Trump administration directed the department’s Civil Division “to use its enforcement authorities to advance the Administration’s policy objectives,” including prioritizing denaturalizing anyone who may have broken federal law in obtaining U.S. citizenship.
The Civil Division was instructed to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence,” according to the memo.
The memo listed 10 categories of cases that should take priority for denaturalization.
These cases included ones against individuals who “pose a potential danger to national security,” “furthered the unlawful enterprise” of criminal organizations, engaged in fraud, and “any other cases referred to the Civil Division that the Division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.”
The memo did not provide additional information on what would make a case “sufficiently important to pursue.”
Is it hard to become a U.S. citizen?
The announcement from the Justice Department comes as the Trump administration has placed naturalization applicants under additional scrutiny and expanded the mandatory naturalization civics test in 2025.
On Sept. 17, USCIS announced it was expanding the naturalization civics test from 100 questions to 128 questions. The requirement of scoring a six out of 10 on the citizenship test was changed to a score of 12 out of 20 under the new policy.
USCIS also updated its policy on how it screens if an immigrant had “endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused” anti-American ideologies, antisemitic ideologies and terrorist organization views, according to an Aug. 19 statement. The ideologies and views would be screened through social media vetting.
In an Aug. 15 memo, USCIS announced it was putting greater emphasis on determining if naturalization applicants displayed “good moral character” through “positive attributions and contributions.” Some of the examples provided by USCIS included consistent community involvement, family caregiving and educational attainment.
Have any news tips or story ideas about immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona? Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow him on Instagram & X, formerly Twitter, @davidulloa_ii.
Daniel Gonzalez covers immigration. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @azdangonzalez.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump aiming to denaturalize hundreds of US citizens. What to know. Reporting by David Ulloa Jr and Daniel Gonzalez, Arizona Republic / Arizona Republic via Reuters
