The United States will revoke its citizenship from 384 Americans born abroad.
The New York Times reports that Donald Trump’s administration is serious about stripping people who obtained U.S. citizenship through fraudulent means of their citizenship, and has already identified 384 foreign-born Americans who will lose their citizenship. This will be part of a campaign to increase the pace of citizenship revocations, which they plan to expand by assigning cases to prosecutors across US Attorneys’ Offices.The New York Times report said that senior Justice Department officials in Washington told colleagues during a meeting last week that civil litigators in 39 regional offices would soon be assigned to bring denaturalization cases against individuals. Two people familiar with the plans confirmed broader efforts to ramp up citizenship withdrawals. But the matter is still unofficial and it is not known who these 384 individuals are and how they were restricted.Justice Department spokesman Matthew Tragesser told the New York Times that officials are “pursuing the largest number of denaturalization referrals in history” from the Department of Homeland Security. He added: “The Ministry of Justice is focusing intensely on rooting out criminal aliens who defraud the naturalization process.”
What is denaturalization? ?
Denationalization is the legal process of revoking someone’s citizenship after they have previously become a citizen through naturalization.
Foreign-born persons become naturalized citizens after meeting specific requirements. Those who are US citizens by birth do not receive naturalization or denaturalization.Under federal law, the government may ask a court to strip citizenship from people who fraudulently obtained it, by entering into a sham marriage or by withholding information about their past that might make them ineligible. Some who commit crimes may also have their citizenship revoked.
The government must present the evidence to a federal judge through a civil or criminal proceeding, making the process difficult, time-consuming and thus rare.In 2025, the administration reportedly asked USCIS to refer 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month to the Department of Justice in fiscal year 2026.In 2025, the Department of Justice pursued 13 citizenship deprivation cases and won eight of them. During Trump’s first term, the government filed about 100 cases over four years, while only 24 cases were filed under the Biden administration. But they now have new goals that go beyond any previous precedents.
