Justice Department seeks to revoke citizenship from 17 people in major denaturalization push

In a significant move, the Justice Department announced on Monday that it is seeking to revoke the citizenship of 17 naturalized Americans, marking a major escalation in the Trump administration’s sweeping denaturalization campaign.

The administration has intensified its citizenship-revocation drive since Trump returned to office. The campaign targets American citizens who are accused of fraudulently obtaining their US citizenship.

The primary reason of denaturalization is that US government targeted effort against individuals accused of serious crimes specifically fraud and the sexual abuse of a minor.

Historically, the US has revoked citizenship for several reasons, including lying about an arrival date, age or marital status. In the past, denaturalization has also been used for political or national security reasons such as stripping citizenship from pro-Nazi German Americans during World War II.

Denaturalization is a rare occurrence that strips a naturalized US citizen of their citizenship. Notably, a person’s citizenship can only be revoked in a federal court. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a total of 64 denaturalization cases during the Biden administration.

The current Trump administration has already outpaced the total number of denaturalization cases filed during the entire Biden administration.

In this regard, Acting General Todd Blanche said in a statement: “Gaining US citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of Trump, this De apartment of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process.”

According to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the administration will continue to use every lawful avenue to denaturalize and remove aliens. This latest enforcement action follows a similar push when the administration moved to denaturalize a dozen individuals in May.