The U.S. Department of Justice has announced it will be targeting foreign-born naturalized U.S. citizens in its objective to strip them of U.S. citizenship with the reasoning that they may have obtained U.S. permanent residence through fraud or they may have withheld information regarding prior past acts, rendering them ineligible for U.S. citizenship. 

This effort, commenced in the prior Trump administration, originated in an announcement saying that a USCIS Service Center would be established in the state of California and tasked with the goal of denaturalizing U.S. citizens who may have committed acts which would have rendered them deportable or ineligible for U.S. citizenship. The California Center was never formally activated due to the results in the 2020 election which returned Democrats to office. Stephen Miller, currently serving as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, has further instructed the 33 USCIS District Offices of U.S. Citizenship Services around the country to identify 200 citizenship cases per month for review for revocation of citizenship.
 

Historic and Present Context of American Denaturalization
Historically, the government has rarely used its power to denaturalize Americans. From 2017 through 2025, just over 120 individuals were stripped of their citizenship.  A total of 305 denaturalization cases were filed by the government between 1990 and 2017, according to the New York Times Some of the most famous denaturization cases have included former Nazis in the 1970’s and 1980’s including John Demjanjuk, who was stripped of his citizenship after a prolonged battle. He was accused of lying on his citizenship application after the Justice Department was furnished with evidence that he served as a guard at the infamous Sobibor concentration camp.  Others include Emma Goldman (deported in 1919 for communist affiliation) and many more with criminal records not disclosed in citizenship requests.

As background, foreign nationals who apply for nonimmigrant work visas, U.S. permanent residence and thereafter qualify for U.S. citizenship, are heavily scrutinized with detailed security checks and extensive checking of global criminal records. The level of scrutiny and delay in processing naturalization applications has been noticeable since early 2025, and the scheduling of citizenship interviews has slowed down countrywide.

The administration has further announced that regular government prosecutors will be enlisted to initiate denaturalization proceedings.  Historically, only government attorneys who are experts in naturalization and immigration litigation have been tasked with handling denaturalization cases.  

The White House initiative to denaturalize many more Americans will likely divert the primary work of the Civil Division at the U.S. attorney’s offices, which is routinely tasked with investigating fraud related to civil rights laws violations, asset forfeiture and health care fraud.

The Justice Department announced it has initially identified 384 individuals targeted for denaturalization, which is a ‘first wave of cases’ identified per Francey Hakes, director of the Executive Office for United States attorneys.

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For information on U.S. denaturalization proceedings, reach out to the Tarter Krinsky & Drogin Business & Corporate Immigration team.