The Trump administration is taking a firm stance against individuals who secured American citizenship through fraud, with aNew York Timesreport revealing that 384 foreign-born citizens have already been earmarked for removal.
This effort marks the start of a broader campaign to accelerate thestripping of legal statusby delegating these specific files to prosecutors within US attorney's offices nationwide.
During a meeting last week, high-ranking Justice Department officials in Washington informed staff that civil lawyers across 39 regional branches would soon be tasked with launching these legal proceedings. While two sources with knowledge of the strategy have verified this intensified push to revoke citizenship, the plan remains unofficial. Furthermore, the identities of the 384 people targeted and the specific criteria used to select them stay hidden from the public.
🚨 WOW! The Trump DOJ is officially pursuing the “HIGHEST VOLUME of denaturalization referrals in HISTORY” — NYTDenaturalizations are about to surge even higher 🔥Fraudsters have ALREADY been targeted for losing citizenship and it’s only ramping up!pic.twitter.com/VDG93kSj8R
Justice Department spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told the NYT that officials are 'pursuing the highest volume of denaturalisation referrals in history' from the Department of Homeland Security. He further noted that the department is 'laser focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalisation process.'
While specialists within the department's office of immigration litigation have historically managed these proceedings, the move to involve standard prosecutors marks a significant shift that could drastically increase the frequency of such cases.
This strategy follows a directive issued only months ago by Trump administration officials, which instructed Department of Homeland Security staff to begin forwarding at least 200 files for review to the DOJ every month. This push signals an end to an era where stripping citizenship was considered a rare occurrence in the American legal system.
'Citizenship fraud is a serious crime; anyone who has broken the law and obtained citizenship through fraud and deceit will be held accountable,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said.
This shift suggests the Trump administration is following through on its pledge to accelerate the stripping of citizenship as a core element of its immigration crackdown. Such a move is poised to create widespread anxiety among naturalised immigrants, particularly as the administration has worked to restrict immigration on all fronts and frequently used disparaging language regarding migrants from specific nations.
🚨Oh dear Lord. Please let Ilhan Omar@Ilhanbe at the top of the list for denaturalization and deportation!!!pic.twitter.com/XHhRrS8kft
Source: International Business Times UK
