Trump's denaturalization policy explained as DOJ flags nearly 400 for deportation
Topics: US News, Politics, Immigration
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Topics: US News, Politics, Immigration
The Department of Justice is seeking to denaturalize nearly 400 people across America, following President Trump's disturbing warning to US citizens late last year.
The president's second term in the White House has not been short of controversies, particularly relating to the administration's hard crack down on immigration, including ICE brutality, which resulted in the deaths of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, earlier this year.
People across the country have seen a sharp increase in immigration raids, with reports suggesting that ICE agents have detained people regardless of their immigration status.
And while Donald Trump continues to emphasize that the DOJ are acting in the interest of national security and protecting the American people, critics have described their behavior as a total abuse of power.
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In a new statement, the administration has announced plans to denaturalize 384 citizens - a process which was once only used in exceptional circumstances.
Speaking to the New York Times, agency spokesman Matthew Tragesser said: "The DOJ are pursuing the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history, and are laser focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process."
Under US immigration law, naturalization is the formal process by which a non-citizen becomes a US citizen, after meeting specific legal requirements set by the Citizenship and Immigration Services.
And denaturalization is the opposite - when the government later revokes that citizenship.
Denaturalization of citizenship can occur if the administration finds out that it was obtained through fraud, misrepresentation, or serious legal violations.
And in the US, denaturalization applies only to people who became citizens through naturalization, not those with birthright citizenship.
However, it seems the Trump administration is actively seeking out cases, having reportedly pushed the Department of Homeland Security to find 100 to 200 possible denaturalization cases a month to refer to the DOJ.
But this isn't unique to his second term.
During Trump’s first term and beyond, the US government pursued far more denaturalization cases than in previous decades combined - surpassing the total from 1990–2017 within just a few years.
It comes after the president issued a chilling warning to US citizens late last year.
"We have criminals that came into our country, and they were naturalized maybe through Biden or somebody that didn't know what they were doing," he said in early December.
"If I have the power to do it - I'm not sure that I do, but if I do - I would denaturalize, absolutely."