The Biden-era rarity of U.S. denaturalization proceedings is giving way to an aggressive push under President Donald Trump, with the Justice Department and Homeland Security departments moving to identify hundreds of naturalized citizens whose status could be challenged. In what the DOJ has called “the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history,” federal officials have flagged at least 384 people for potential denaturalization, a marked increase from the roughly 100 cases filed during Trump’s first term.
Denaturalization — the federal court process that strips a person of U.S. citizenship granted by naturalization — historically has been used sparingly and mainly against those accused of serious crimes such as war crimes, terrorism, or felonies concealed during the immigration process, or for clear cases of fraud like faked marriages or deliberate misrepresentation. Once naturalized, an individual enjoys the full rights of citizenship, including protection from deportation; denaturalization requires a U.S. Attorney to bring a case in federal court, where a judge presides over adversarial proceedings before any revocation can occur.
The current uptick reflects an explicit policy shift. In June 2025 the Justice Department issued a memo prioritizing denaturalization and broadening the criteria under which cases would be pursued, and the department has publicly tied the effort to rooting out “criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process.” DOJ officials told NBC News they are “moving at warp speed” to prosecute alleged fraudsters. At the same time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — part of the Department of Homeland Security — has reportedly reassigned personnel and set internal targets for screening existing files, with staff given goals of identifying 100 to 200 potential cases per month, according to prior reporting cited by national outlets.
The administration’s public posture has included political examples. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in December singled out Somali-Americans in Minnesota accused of fraud and said denaturalization is “a tool at the president and the secretary of state’s disposal.” But the government has not disclosed the specific grounds for the nearly 400 referrals the DOJ now cites, leaving open whether the cases are concentrated among clearly culpable criminal conduct or include a broader range of alleged paperwork errors or discrepancies.
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Immigrant advocates and legal experts warn that the widened campaign could sweep in people whose mistakes were minor or inadvertent. Groups such as the National Immigration Forum and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center emphasize that denaturalization should be reserved for clear fraud or criminality. Commentators have cautioned that small discrepancies — even typographical errors on forms — could trigger review under an expanded enforcement posture, potentially ensnaring long-standing citizens who never intended to deceive immigration authorities.
The renewed focus on denaturalization comes alongside other administration efforts to restrict immigration and citizenship, including high-profile litigation over birthright citizenship that reached the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. Taken together, the moves signal a comprehensive enforcement strategy that seeks to challenge both the acquisition of citizenship and its retention after naturalization.
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For those named in denaturalization referrals, the path forward remains judicial: the government must file charges in federal court, present evidence that eligibility was fraudulently obtained, and persuade a judge that citizenship should be revoked. Defense of citizenship in such cases can be costly and prolonged, and advocacy groups say the uptick in referrals will likely trigger new legal battles testing how far the federal government can push denaturalization as a routine immigration enforcement tool.
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