Internal guidance, reported by The New York Times, indicates that the Trump administration intends to increase the number of naturalized Americans whose U.S. citizenship could be revoked. The directive instructs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices to submit between 100 and 200 potential denaturalization cases each month to the Office of Immigration Litigation for the 2026 fiscal year.
Under federal law, citizenship may be revoked only in cases of fraud during naturalization or other narrowly defined circumstances. USCIS officials emphasized that the campaign targets individuals who obtained citizenship unlawfully or misrepresented material facts in their applications.
Chief of Public Affairs Matthew Tragesser emphasized that the agency will “pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process.”
The Justice Department has also prioritized denaturalization, targeting individuals involved in gang activity, financial fraud, drug trafficking, or violent crime. The process requires federal court review and “unequivocal evidence” that citizenship was obtained illegally or through misrepresentation.
With roughly 26 million naturalized Americans in the country, the guidance signals a heightened enforcement approach under President Donald Trump’s broader immigration agenda, which has included travel restrictions and pauses on applications from several non-European nations.
