President Donald Trump’s administration is gearing up for an unprecedented campaign of stripping foreign-born Americans of citizenship using a rarely used and heavily restricted process known as denaturalization, reported The New York Times on Wednesday.
“The guidance, issued on Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, asks that they ‘supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month’ in the 2026 fiscal year,” reported Hamed Aleaziz. “If the cases are successful, it would represent a massive escalation of denaturalization in the modern era, experts said. By comparison, between 2017 and this year to date, there had been just over 120 cases filed, according to the Justice Department.”
Federal law only provides a handful of narrow circumstances under which naturalized citizens can be stripped of citizenship, including a finding of fraud during the naturalization process.
However, according to the report, “the guidance comes as Mr. Trump has spent much of this year closing loopholes in the immigration system and throwing up roadblocks for people seeking to enter and stay in the country. The sweeping campaign, which has gone further than purging the country of unlawful migrants, has included blocks on asylum at the southern border, a pause on asylum applications inside the United States, and a ban on entry for travelers from predominantly African and Middle Eastern nations.”
A USCIS spokesman said, “We will pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process. We look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Justice to restore integrity to America’s immigration system.”
However, former USCIS officials sounded the alarm over the effort, with one, Sarah Pierce, telling The Times, “Requiring monthly quotas that are 10 times higher than the total annual number of denaturalizations in recent years turns a serious and rare tool into a blunt instrument and fuels unnecessary fear and uncertainty for the millions of naturalized Americans.”
Trump has long hinted that a large-scale denaturalization campaign was in the works, stating he would “absolutely” use the process wherever he has the authority earlier this month.
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