DOJ announces plans to revoke citizenship from 17 naturalized citizens – JURIST

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that it will move to revoke citizenship from 17 naturalized citizens.

Denaturalization cases are rare; from 1990 through 2017 there were only 305 denaturalization cases, or an average 11 per year. In that same time period, approximately 644,000 immigrants became US citizens each year.

Under federal law, the government may ask a court to strip the citizenship of people who obtained their citizenship fraudulently or committed a crime. Qualifying fraudulent instances to induce denaturalization include: entering into a sham marriage or withholding information about their past that would have made them ineligible. However, naturalized citizens are still entitled to due process during a denaturalization proceeding. The government must present evidence to a federal judge through a civil or criminal trial, making the process challenging and time-consuming for the judicial system.

According to a recent New York Times article, the DOJ is preparing to expand efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized American citizens, identifying 384 people whose citizenship it may seek to revoke. This press release comes exactly a month after the administration announced its plan to denaturalize a dozen individuals.

In a statement regarding the press release, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is quoted as saying:

When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences. Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters. Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process. We continue to work around the clock with our interagency partners to make sure U.S. citizenship is granted to those who truly deserve it.

Other personnel inside the Trump administration, such as Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division, echoed Blanche’s sentiment, saying that the government will not turn a blind eye to the illegal acquisition of citizenship and stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals who have “exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system.”