Citizenship revoked? Trump administration ramps up controversial plan. - USA Today

What the report says

USA Today reports that the Trump administration is expanding its use of denaturalization, the legal process for revoking U.S. citizenship from naturalized citizens, as part of a broader immigration enforcement agenda. The administration says the effort is aimed at people who obtained citizenship through fraud, false identities, concealed criminal records or other misrepresentations, and frames it as protecting the integrity of naturalization.

According to the report, the Justice Department has filed at least 89 denaturalization cases in federal court since the start of 2025 and has won at least 19. The government’s target is to file at least 250 cases by October. USA Today says that pace would exceed recent modern administrations: the Biden administration brought 24 cases over four years, while Trump’s first term saw 102 such cases, according to DOJ figures cited in the article.

Federal law allows the government to ask a judge to revoke citizenship when it was obtained through fraud or willful misrepresentation. The cases cited by USA Today include allegations tied to serious criminal convictions, use of false identities, war crimes and support for foreign terrorist organizations. Legal experts quoted in the report said the types of allegations do not appear highly unusual, but the volume and prioritization of cases mark a significant shift.

The issue matters because denaturalization has historically been rare, costly and slow. USA Today notes that from 1990 to 2017, an average of 11 cases were filed annually, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some former DOJ lawyers and immigration scholars warned the campaign could divert resources from other prosecutions or unsettle naturalized citizens by making citizenship feel less secure.