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Trump administration seeks to ramp up denaturalization of some US citizens, New York Times reports
U.S. President Donald Trump has carried out an aggressive immigration agenda, including imposing travel bans and an attempt to end birthright citizenship,
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Reuters - Wed, 17, Dec 2025
- 21:37 EST
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Melissa W. Maxim shakes hands and offers a Certificate of Citizenship to a new American citizen at the Glacier Point amphitheater in Yosemite National Park, California, U.S., September 17, 2025. / REUTERS/Tracy Barbutes/File Photo
The Trump administration intends to increase its efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their U.S. citizenship, the New York Times reported on Dec. 17, citing internal guidance.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance, which was issued on Dec. 16, asks its field offices to "supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month" in the upcoming 2026 fiscal year, according to the newspaper.
ALSO READ: Trump targets non-white immigrants in renewed xenophobic rants
That would mark a dramatic increase in denaturalization cases, which, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, stood at about 11 per year between 1990 and 2017.
Under U.S. law, a person can be denaturalized for several reasons, including illegally gaining U.S. citizenship and misrepresenting a material fact during the naturalization process.
The timeline for denaturalization cases varies, but they can take years to resolve.
A USCIS spokesperson said it was not a secret that the agency's "war on fraud" prioritized people who unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship, particularly under the previous administration.
"We will pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process," the spokesperson said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has carried out an aggressive immigration agenda, including imposing travel bans and an attempt to end birthright citizenship, since January.
His administration most recently paused immigration applications, including green card and U.S. citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries.
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