The Trump administration is temporarily reassigning immigration lawyers from the agency that oversees legal immigration to the Justice Department to accelerate efforts to revoke citizenship from naturalized Americans who obtained it through fraud.
Staff attorneys at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are being transferred to U.S. attorney's offices to work on denaturalization cases, according to four former agency officials. One described the arrangement as staffers being "volun-told" to relocate, while another characterized it as lawyers being "force volunteered."
The administration is not requiring prior denaturalization experience for the transferred lawyers, only an active law license. USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said the agency was "proud to support this critical effort by providing the Department of Justice with a team of our most skilled immigration law attorneys."
Denaturalization cases carry an exceptionally high legal burden. Prosecutors must prove "clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt" in civil proceedings, a standard that has traditionally kept the caseload minimal. Criminal charges can follow if someone illegally obtained citizenship they were ineligible for.
In Trump's first term, the administration created a dedicated denaturalization unit with 10 to 15 lawyers. Those cases have languished despite internal calls to accelerate them. One former official said the barrier to success is straightforward: "It's really hard to prove. The standard is really high, and you need good evidence. A lot of cases, it's just not there."
The Justice Department has shortlisted 385 people for denaturalization charges. During the first Trump term, USCIS identified roughly 2,500 potential cases but referred only a fraction to prosecutors. Since the current administration took office, the DOJ has filed 35 denaturalization cases, including 12 in the most recent month alone.
Joe Edlow, the USCIS chief, has made denaturalization central to his agency's mission. In remarks last year, he expressed frustration with centralizing the effort, saying he wanted every office across the country treating denaturalization as a priority benchmark rather than sending cases to a specialized unit. "If that gives rise to the need for a denaturalization, we're going to move forward," he said at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.
A Justice Department memo from June designated denaturalization as a top priority, framing it as essential to supporting "the overall integrity of the naturalization program." A DOJ spokesperson said the agency welcomed the transfer of USCIS lawyers "to advance the President's mission to promote public safety and root out fraud."
Author James Rodriguez: "Reassigning immigration lawyers across agencies to chase denaturalization cases signals how central stripping citizenship has become to this administration's immigration agenda, even if the legal and evidentiary obstacles remain formidable."
Comments