July 15, 2025
Revoking citizenship from naturalized citizens? You may have to heard headlines about this recently and thought, WTF – is that a thing or just fake news? If you are one of the 24+ million naturalized U.S. citizens, you might be thinking, “I thought I was a citizen just as much as those who were citizens at birth?”, or “Could this happen to me?” I am here to tell you that, most likely, you can relax.
While some outlets may have provided overly broad Google descriptions like Trump DOJ stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans, what is the reality? Well, the media shitstorm followed the release of an internal U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) memo setting priorities for its staff of U.S. Attorneys. “Prioritizing denaturalization” was the fifth item listed in the memo. Not to understate the scariness of the memo, it did include language like “maximally pursue denaturalization processing” as well as a catch-all making it sound like denaturalization could be pursued ad hoc: “Any other cases referred to the Civil Division that the Division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.” Wow!
Before panic sets in, SLOW DOWN! Sure, there are a lot of recent headlines that might cause even legal immigrants to be stressed and feel under attack, including:
- Remember the permanent resident (“green card holder”) student protestor from Columbia University who was arrested by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”);
- Remember the legal resident temporarily deported with other suspected gang members to a prison in El Salvador without due process and the President’s comments about detaining and deporting some U.S. citizen criminals to El Salvador; and
- And don’t forget the ongoing battle to limit birthright citizenship to children of US citizens and permanent residents, undoing the stability of rules in place for over 100 years. As a result, even persons here legally may no longer be able to convey citizenship to their U.S.-born children.
All this makes the media headlines more reasonable and less like sensationalism, but rather the next focus in a broad anti-immigrant campaign. But digging a little deeper might convince you that the anti-immigrant push does not include 99.99% of naturalized citizens.
How Denaturalization Really Works
Loss of citizenship, for natural born citizens or naturalized citizens, is governed by a statute that lists seven narrow grounds, most notably voluntarily relinquishing citizenship and a conviction for treason. Another statute describes the two primary ways a naturalized citizen may be stripped of status by denaturalization:
- Fraud or Concealment at Naturalization
If one willfully failed to disclose a disqualifying fact during their naturalization application process, say, certain criminal acts, a conviction, war-crime involvement, or other material issue (which may have rendered them ineligible for naturalization), a court can deem your naturalization “illegally procured” and revoke it. - Membership in a Disqualifying Organization (Within Five Years)
A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization.
Thus, the governing statute limits denaturalization to these limited circumstances, and the disqualifying criminal acts must have occurred, and not been disclosed by the applicant, prior to taking the citizenship oath.
Real-World Denaturalization Cases
Consistent with the narrow definitions of the statute, denaturalization is relatively rare. There were an estimated 305 cases from 1990-2017. The first Trump Administration averaged less than 30 cases per year.
What types of cases have been pursued? The DOJ website lists a sampling of cases where denaturalization resulted in revocation of citizenship. The categories and a sample case is listed here:
- National Security/Terrorism: an individual who admitted to recruiting for al Qaeda.
- War Crimes & Human Rights Violations: an individual who was convicted in Bosnia of executing eight unarmed civilians and POWs during the Balkans conflict.
- Sex Offenders: an individual who sexually abused a minor victim for multiple years.
- Fraudsters & other criminals: an individual convicted of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Export-Import Bank of more than $24 million.
In one case finalized after issuance of the recent DOJ memo, a convicted distributor of child sexual abuse material was stripped of citizenship. It is interesting to note that the individual had taken his oath before he was arrested for the criminal act. This makes it clear that a criminal act before taking the naturalization oath, whether or not an arrest had already occurred, can later result in denaturalization.
Don’t Worry, But Be Vigilant
When you consider the timing restrictions on denaturalization and the types of criminal activities noted in the above cases, I suspect most naturalized citizens should be breathing a bit easier. That said, the tenor of the DOJ memo and other recent actions against immigrants, including the President stating “we need to take a look” when asked about stripping Elon Musk of citizenship, it is understandable all of this might make naturalized (and all) citizens nervous.
My attempt to relax naturalized citizens also comes with a reminder for them. Pay attention to government attempts to stretch denaturalization beyond the two paths defined by Congress. Staying informed and insisting the DOJ remains confined to Congress’s design, helps prevent enforcement from crossing the line. As naturalized citizens, you committed to such vigilance when you recited the Oath of Allegiance, pledging to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States”.
In closing, I’d like to remind you of the quote: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” As citizens, eternal vigilance mandates defense of the Constitution, its guarantees, and respect for the rule of law. In short, it is any citizen’s patriotic and civic duty.
