Over the last several years, the Trump administration has made great strides to formalize its mission to deprive some Americans of their U.S. citizenship. As many of you know, the Justice Department just released a memo. Specifically, it tells attorneys to focus denaturalization proceedings on naturalized citizens who commit “aggravated felony” crimes. This historic initiative raises troubling concerns. It would undermine core civil rights and citizenship, eroding trust in democracy and disenfranchising millions of naturalized Americans across the country.
The new directive establishes ten priority categories for denaturalization. It highlights attempts to focus on those naturalized citizens who commit violent felons. Citizens who unlawfully got their citizenship have much graver consequences, according to the memo. It singles out those who concealed material misrepresentations during the naturalization process as being particularly susceptible. This new development is not very surprising given that the administration is looking to fill out what it perceives as gaps in threats by some bad actors.
Recent cases illustrate the administration’s resolve. U.S. military veteran Elliott Duke, a former citizen of the United Kingdom, had his citizenship revoked June 13th. A judge ordered the revocation of his citizenship that same day. Duke was found guilty for distributing child sexual abuse material. Because he criminally did not disclose this crime during his naturalization process, he was criminally misleading the government. His case became one of the first to test the waters under this new prioritization, as described in the memo’s introduction.
The memo states that denaturalization efforts will target various categories of individuals, including those involved in “the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses … and naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the U.S.” This language indicates an attempt to take a wider and more aggressive view of the grounds for denaturalization, targeting potentially millions of naturalized citizens.
These acts directly affect roughly 25 million U.S. citizens. They are people born outside of the country who then immigrated to the United States. In fact, the Justice Department has been ramping up its denaturalization crusade. In reply, civil rights advocates raise the warning flag of how this is a path to creating a “second class” of U.S. citizens. Sameera Hafiz, policy director of the Immigration Legal Resource Center, described this change in policy as a dangerous about face.
“It is kind of, in a way, trying to create a second class of US citizens.” – Sameera Hafiz
Worries over civil rights issues are added to by new internal difficulties with the Justice Department. It comes after reports that nearly 250 lawyers have left the department so far this year, between January and May. That’s more than 70% of the division’s lawyers. This mass exodus will undoubtedly affect the department’s capacity to competently pursue denaturalization cases, as well as keep an eye on denaturalization cases and civil rights infractions.
This major policy shift comes amid a spate of deaths in custody, most recently ICE’s 13th reported in-custody death for the current fiscal year that began on October 1, 2024. TDCJ had a total of 12 in-custody deaths for all of the previous fiscal year. As this statistic shows, ICE is not fulfilling its mandate and lacks sufficient oversight during the detainment process.
The Trump administration’s current attacks on denaturalization are the latest example of a disturbing trend in which national security interests trump civil rights safeguards. As these policies are developed, the possible long-term consequences for naturalized citizens and the wider immigrant community are still emerging.