On June 11, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Civil Division to focus on revoking the naturalization or citizenship of certain immigrants, highlighting those with criminal histories or who have committed fraud to become Americans.

“The Civil Division will prioritize and promote to the maximum extent possible the procedures for denaturalization in all cases permitted by law and supported by evidence,” the memo says.

However, civil rights organizations have highlighted a troubling element of the memo that refers to “other cases.”

“Any other cases referred to the Civil Division that it determines are sufficiently important to pursue will be prioritized,” the document states.

The document includes ten cases in which citizenship revocation could be sought, including those where there is little investigation of “criminal charges” against a person.

“Cases referred by the United States Attorney’s Office or in relation to pending criminal charges are included if those charges do not fit within one of the other priorities,” point nine states.

Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Association for New Americans (NPNA), acknowledged on the podcast “El Diario Sin Límites” that there are concerns about the government’s new policy on citizenship revocation President Donald Trump.

Melaku acknowledged that during his first term in office, Trump tried to reinforce the policy to revoke citizenship.

“In the first Trump administration, they had some kind of project to denaturalize people and they didn't have the resources to do it and they didn't know the process well,” he acknowledged.

He added that now with the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB), approved by Republicans in Congress and signed into law by President Trump, it will facilitate immigration plans.

“The president is now going to have the resources of civil servants and also immigration to look for people and launch investigations to see who he can include in this denaturalization process,” Melaku acknowledged.

Immigration Fraud

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publishes an annual report on immigration statistics and, according to its 2022 report, more than 1,000 cases of immigration fraud were reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That represented a 20% increase over the previous year and the majority of cases (75%) are due to fraudulent marriages, that is, fictitious couples whose objective is to obtain a Green Card – and then citizenship – for one of its members.

Naturalization fraud is rare and the DOJ has had a focus on people who have committed high-impact crimes, such as sex trafficking, human trafficking, and organized crime, but now it will expand the range of investigations, which also include financial fraud, among other crimes.

“This process is no longer an immigration process, it is part of a civil process and the administration is going to have to take several people to a civil court to revoke their naturalization,” Melaku specified.

The new criteria worry NPNA, due to the general immigration policy of the Trump Administration.

“For us it is very worrying because we already know that this administration is willing to criminalize our people and they are going to say that there are many people in our community who have some criminal record,” Melaku explained. “While we don’t have all the details of that program, of this effort, we already know the entire narrative and also the practice that is happening in our communities right now.”

An estimated 25 million immigrants are naturalized.

Citizenship Revocation in the U.S.

An estimated 25 million immigrants are naturalized, according to recent 2023 data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the policy of revoking naturalization is not new, but it has had its peak periods.

In the late 1940s, it was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who launched a crusade against “communists.”

The administration of President George W. Bush also used this process to revoke the citizenship of primarily Muslim people after the 9/11 attacks. Even under Barack Obama, there were several cases.

“In 2001, it was applied to people in the Middle East; the president used his powers to denaturalize Muslims for being terrorists,” Melaku recalled.

The expert said, however, that the Trump administration's strategy is moving to another level.

“In 2001, we saw many families separated through the detention separation and denaturalization process, for reasons of national security,” he said. “There is a history of using this mechanism, but not at this level.”