Trump administration seeks sharp increase in denaturalization cases, NYT reports

ANKARA

The Trump administration plans to significantly expand efforts to revoke the US citizenship of some naturalized Americans, according to internal guidance obtained by The New York Times, a move critics say could intensify fear among immigrant communities.

The guidance, issued Tuesday to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field offices, instructs officials to supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with between 100 and 200 denaturalization cases per month during the 2026 fiscal year, the newspaper reported.

Between 2017 and 2025, the Justice Department filed just over 120 denaturalization cases. Under the new targets, that number could be exceeded in a single month.

Federal law permits denaturalization only under limited circumstances, such as when citizenship was obtained through fraud or material misrepresentation. However, immigration advocates and former officials warn that numerical targets could lead to overly aggressive enforcement, potentially affecting people who made unintentional errors on paperwork, according to the Times.

“It’s no secret that USCIS’ war on fraud includes prioritizing those who’ve unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship,” agency spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser told The New York Times, adding that the agency would work with the Justice Department to pursue cases supported by evidence.

Some former USCIS officials voiced concern over the scale of the proposed increase.

“Imposing arbitrary numerical targets on denaturalization cases risks politicizing citizenship revocation,” said Sarah Pierce, a former agency official. She warned that monthly quotas far exceeding recent annual totals could turn a “serious and rare tool into a blunt instrument.”

Supporters of stricter immigration enforcement argue the government is simply applying existing laws. Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, said the US is “nowhere close to denaturalizing too many people.”

About 26 million naturalized citizens live in the US, according to Census Bureau data cited by the Times. In most cases, individuals stripped of citizenship revert to legal permanent resident status.

Legal experts note that denaturalization cases must be proven in federal court, a high bar that has kept such actions relatively rare for decades. Still, critics warn that aggressive enforcement targets could create uncertainty among law-abiding citizens who believed their status was secure.