Overview
- USCIS has reassigned staff and sent specialists to field offices to review past naturalizations and identify potential cases, with a goal of forwarding 100–200 leads per month to the Office of Immigration Litigation.
- A June 2025 Justice Department memorandum directs officials to prioritize pursuing denaturalization in all cases allowed by law and backed by evidence.
- In Trump’s second term so far, 16 denaturalization cases have been filed and seven have resulted in government wins, compared with 102 filings across his first term and an historical average near 11 cases per year from 1990 to 2017.
- USCIS states it will act when credible evidence shows citizenship was obtained through fraud or misrepresentation, reiterating a zero‑tolerance policy for naturalization fraud.
- The initiative is part of a broader immigration enforcement campaign involving visa revocations, city deportation operations, and expanded detention capacity, while legal advocates warn of chilling effects and note Republican proposals to widen statutory grounds for stripping citizenship.