President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration plans to pursue revocation of citizenship for naturalized immigrants convicted of defrauding American citizens, signaling a broader effort to expand federal denaturalization enforcement.
Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump stated that the administration would seek to revoke citizenship from naturalized immigrants “from Somalia or anywhere else” who are convicted of defrauding U.S. citizens. His remarks come amid a broader push by federal authorities to increase scrutiny of how citizenship was obtained in certain cases.
The announcement coincides with a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a new section dedicated to investigating and prosecuting denaturalization cases. According to the department, the unit will focus on individuals who allegedly obtained citizenship unlawfully or concealed “material facts” during the naturalization process.
Officials indicated that enforcement priorities will center on serious violations of law, including cases involving terrorism, war crimes, sexual offenses, and large-scale financial fraud. The new section builds on a denaturalization task force created during Trump’s first presidential term in 2018.
Denaturalization—the legal process of revoking citizenship—is permitted under U.S. law when citizenship was obtained through fraud or material misrepresentation. However, the legal standard for such cases is high.
In prior rulings, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that citizenship may be revoked only when it was illegally procured, requiring “clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence.”
Historically, denaturalization cases have been relatively rare. Following a landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision that limited the practice primarily to fraud-related cases, the federal government typically filed only a small number of denaturalization actions each year.
In 2008, the administration of Barack Obama launched “Operation Janus,” a program that used digitized fingerprint records to identify individuals who had been ordered deported under one identity but later obtained citizenship under another. The Trump administration later expanded those reviews as part of its broader immigration enforcement strategy.
