Trump admin expands efforts to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship

The Justice Department has issued new guidelines directing attorneys to aggressively pursue stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans who concealed crimes or posed national security threats during their naturalization process, a policy that could affect the nearly 25 million people.

What you need to know: A June 11 memo from Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate establishes multiple priority categories for citizenship revocation and instructs the Civil Division to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.” The policy focuses on individuals who “pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism” and those who “committed felonies that were not disclosed during the naturalization process.” The memo permits attorneys to target those facing “pending criminal charges” that have not yet secured a conviction. Shumate outlined that the benefits include “the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings or other serious human rights abuses.”

Pros and cons: Hans von Spakovsky of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation defended the initiative, telling NPR, “I do not understand how anyone could possibly be opposed to the Justice Department taking such action to protect the nation from obvious predators, criminals and terrorists.” Others, however, have expressed alarm over constitutional issues. Law professor and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance cautioned that “the provision is so vague that it would permit the Division to denaturalize for just about anything,” potentially targeting “troublesome journalists who are naturalized citizens” or “students.” The administration’s approach has drawn political attention, with President Donald Trump recently saying he will “take a look” at potentially deporting Elon Musk — who has been critical of his recent “One Big Beautiful Bill” — remarking that “we might have to put DOGE on Elon.”

Broader implications: The policy marks a substantial escalation from earlier initiatives, including Operation Janus launched under the Obama administration, which identified hundreds of immigrants who had been ordered deported but became U.S. citizens under another identity. The administration has already succeeded in one case against Elliott Duke, a British-born Army veteran convicted of distributing child sexual abuse material, who now lacks citizenship in any country.