The Justice Department has identified at least 300 foreign-born Americans for potential citizenship revocation as part of a sweeping new denaturalization campaign, sources confirmed.
A DOJ official told NBC News the targets number in the hundreds. The effort represents a dramatic escalation of what was already an expanding initiative across the Trump administration to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans suspected of fraud or other violations during their application process.
The operation is highly coordinated. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency within the Department of Homeland Security that oversees legal immigration, has deployed experts to field offices nationwide and reassigned staff specifically to identify cases for revocation. The goal is to supply 100 to 200 potential cases monthly to federal prosecutors, who then handle the prosecutions.
Federal prosecutors in offices across the country are now working these cases. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department is "laser-focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process" under President Trump and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, claiming the effort represents "the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history."
Denaturalization cases have historically been exceptionally rare. They typically involved individuals who concealed significant criminal histories or past human rights violations during naturalization. During Trump's first four years in office, the administration filed only 102 such cases total. The current scale and speed suggest a fundamental shift in enforcement priorities.
DOJ guidance to prosecutors has been expansive. Case examples prosecutors are being directed toward include individuals deemed national security risks, those involved in war crimes or torture, and people who committed Medicare or Medicaid fraud or other government fraud schemes.
The citizenship revocation campaign fits within a broader immigration enforcement blitz. The Trump administration has deployed substantial numbers of immigration enforcement officers into U.S. cities on deportation missions and has purchased large-scale detention facilities to house detainees. About 800,000 people become naturalized citizens annually, making the pool of potential targets substantial.
The Justice Department has not publicly explained the selection criteria for the roughly 300 individuals currently in the pipeline, raising questions about how cases were identified and what specific allegations they face.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This represents a sharp departure from how denaturalization has traditionally been used, suggesting the administration views citizenship itself as conditionally enforceable in ways that could reshape how Americans understand the permanence of their status."
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