The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to strip citizenship from naturalised Americans, moving immigration lawyers to the Department of Justice to expedite cases. Last year, the Justice Department announced plans to “prioritise and maximally pursue” denaturalisation cases, marking a significant expansion of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
Efforts accelerated earlier this year, with instructions for US Citizenship and Immigration Services to recommend 100–200 denaturalisation cases per month by 2026. USCIS is temporarily transferring a group of agency lawyers to the Justice Department to speed up these cases, according to officials. A USCIS spokesman said the agency is proud to support the effort by providing skilled attorneys to help strip citizenship from those who obtained it illegally.
The Justice Department is welcoming “Special US Attorneys” from federal agencies and state and local partners to advance the president’s mission to promote public safety and root out fraud. Trump and his allies have repeatedly used citizenship law as a tool in the government-wide deportation project, with officials threatening to strip citizenship from political opponents.
According to a June 2025 memo, the administration will target citizens who pose a “potential danger to national security” or who acquired citizenship through “material misrepresentations.” Lawyers may also pursue denaturalisation in any other cases deemed “sufficiently important.” Denaturalisation is historically rare: fewer than 200 cases were filed in the past eight years, compared to roughly 11 cases annually between 1990 and 2017.
The first Trump administration opened a “Denaturalisation Section” within the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute a growing number of referrals. Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups warn the latest guidelines, fuelled by a politically motivated agenda, could target a broad spectrum of American citizens. The president is also embroiled in a legal battle to unilaterally redefine citizenship, including an executive order seeking to amend the 14th Amendment, which is now before the Supreme Court.
