The Trump administration is dramatically expanding efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans accused of concealing serious crimes or other disqualifying information during the citizenship process.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department filed 40 denaturalization cases between Aug. 28 and Oct. 2, calling the effort the “largest denaturalization effort in modern history.”
The administration is now aiming to file 250 cases by the end of October.
That would be more than double the 120 denaturalization cases brought between President Donald Trump’s return to office on Jan. 20, 2025, and late August of this year.
The latest cases span 19 federal judicial districts and involve naturalized citizens originally from countries including Mexico, China, Iran, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Blanche said the individuals targeted in the recent round include people convicted of espionage and others convicted of sexual offenses involving minors.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice will continue to employ the denaturalization process to maintain our national security and protect the American people,” Blanche said.
According to the Justice Department, many of the cases involve allegations that defendants lied or left out important information on government forms when applying for citizenship.
Federal officials argue that the missing or false information would have made those individuals ineligible to become U.S. citizens in the first place.
“From an individual convicted of espionage to others convicted of sexual offenses against minors, these defendants concealed critical facts from the U.S. government and represent serious criminal offenders,” Blanche said.
The aggressive pace represents a major departure from previous administrations.
From 1990 through 2017, the Justice Department filed an average of only about 11 denaturalization cases per year, according to data cited from the Migration Policy Institute.
The Biden administration filed 24 such cases during its four years in office.
The Trump administration is now moving at a much faster rate.
That acceleration has alarmed immigration attorneys and advocacy groups, who are raising questions about how quickly the cases are being filed and whether each one is receiving sufficient individual review, per the Daily Mail.
Some critics also question whether the Justice Department is devoting too many resources to the denaturalization campaign.
Another concern centers on whether some of the alleged errors or omissions on citizenship forms may have been accidental rather than deliberate.
The source notes that it remains unclear how many of the mistakes at issue were intentional.
Immigration advocates have also warned that the rapid expansion could make it harder for defendants to fully challenge the government’s allegations in court.
The Migration Policy Institute described the effort as part of a broader shift in the administration’s immigration agenda.
Researchers Muzaffar Chishti and Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh said the approach reflects “more enforcement, less legal immigration, and harder-to-access citizenship.”
They also argued that the administration may be trying to create a broader deterrent effect beyond the number of citizenship cases it can actually complete.
“Creating a climate of hostility is much more achievable than large-scale denaturalizations, as history has shown,” they said.
Denaturalization cases can take significant time to work through the courts.
Still, the administration’s target of 250 filings by the end of October shows how aggressively the Justice Department intends to use the process.
For now, the push is focused on naturalized citizens the government says obtained citizenship through fraud, concealment or other disqualifying conduct.
If the administration reaches its target, the effort would mark one of the sharpest expansions of denaturalization enforcement in modern U.S. history.
