DOJ Launches Massive Citizenship Purge

A guide for new immigrants alongside permanent resident cards and an American flag

Department of Justice ramps up denaturalization to strip citizenship from hundreds of fraudsters and criminals who lied to obtain it, delivering long-overdue justice under President Trump’s second term.

Story Highlights

June 2025 DOJ Civil Division memo directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization for cases involving fraud, concealed crimes, gangs, cartels, and national security threats.[1][7]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ordered to refer 100-200 cases monthly to DOJ, potentially 2,400 annually—a sharp increase from prior low volumes.[1][2]
DOJ identifies 384 foreign-born Americans for revocation proceedings, described as highest volume in history.[3]
2025 saw 13 cases filed with 8 successes, building on first Trump term’s task force efforts.[2][5]

DOJ Memo Establishes Clear Priorities

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate issued a June 11, 2025, memorandum to Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division employees. The document lists denaturalization as one of five top enforcement priorities. It instructs attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”[7] Specific categories target individuals who concealed criminal histories, committed financial fraud like Paycheck Protection Program or Medicare scams, furthered gang or cartel interests, engaged in human trafficking, or posed national security risks through terrorism or espionage.[1][2][5][7]

Senator Eric Schmitt praised the initiative as a “constitutional long-established tool for stripping citizenship from people who should have never received it.” He urged expansion, emphasizing citizenship demands more than paperwork.[3] The memo revives efforts from President Trump’s first term, including Operation Janus and a dedicated Denaturalization Section disbanded under Biden.[2][4]

USCIS Scales Up Case Referrals

End of 2025 directives from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) required field offices across 80 locations to supply DOJ with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month in fiscal year 2026. This quota marks a twentyfold rise from historical averages of about 11 cases yearly between 1990 and 2017.[1][2] DOJ confirmed 384 specific foreign-born Americans for revocation, assigning them to prosecutors nationwide.[3] DOJ spokesperson Matthew Tragaser called it the “highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history,” focused on “rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process.”[3]

In 2025 alone, DOJ filed 13 denaturalization cases and won 8, contrasting sharply with Biden’s 24 cases over four years.[2][5] The first Trump administration set an unmet goal of 1,600 referrals via a task force flagging fraudulent naturalizations.[1][6] Recent examples include a June 13, 2025, denaturalization for failing to disclose crimes on applications.[4]

Addressing Leftist Fears with Facts

Civil liberties groups like Democracy Forward claim the effort incites fear and risks broad application against dissent via a catch-all category for “sufficiently important” cases.[1][6] These critics ignore the memo’s detailed priorities tied to fraud and serious crimes, not speech or protests. Historical precedents they cite involved mid-20th-century overreach against dissidents, curtailed by Supreme Court rulings requiring clear, unequivocal proof of willful misrepresentation.[4] Denaturalization remains rare and resource-intensive, with high evidentiary bars under cases like Maslenjak v. United States.[4]

Left-leaning sources amplify voter suppression narratives ahead of midterms, framing 384 cases as intimidation of 25-30 million naturalized voters.[3] Yet no public evidence shows innocent targets; successes like 2025’s 8 wins validate focus on fraudsters.[2][3] Public release of case files via Freedom of Information Act requests would confirm merits, countering unsubstantiated fears.[3] This campaign upholds rule of law, protecting American citizenship’s integrity from those who gamed the system— a win for taxpayers weary of open-borders laxity and prior administrations’ inaction.[1][2][3]