US Justice Department Files 40 Denaturalization Cases, the Most Under Trump

The US Justice Department has filed 40 new lawsuits seeking to strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship, accusing them of serious crimes. In a statement on Monday, federal prosecutors said those targeted include people accused of money laundering, child sexual abuse, visa fraud and tax evasion.

According to the statement, this is the largest number of denaturalisation petitions filed in such a short period under President Donald Trump. The petitions were submitted between late August and early October.

“Today's announcement marks the largest denaturalization effort in modern history,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Under President Trump's leadership, the Justice Department will continue to use the denaturalization process to uphold national security and protect the American people.”

The 40 citizens targeted in Monday's announcement come from a range of countries, including Mexico, Pakistan, China and Sierra Leone. They are accused of concealing criminal conduct and other information about themselves when they applied for citizenship. Their criminal convictions were largely handed down after they had taken the oath of naturalization.

Two people on the list are also accused of spying for China. The Justice Department argues that committing these acts before becoming citizens means these individuals lacked “good moral character” and should have been denied citizenship.

Expanding the use of denaturalization law

Laws allowing the revocation of US citizenship have been used for decades, but previously they were generally reserved for serious crimes. After World War II, for example, the US government denaturalized dozens of citizens accused of concealing Holocaust links or involvement in war crimes.

One notable case was Emma Goldman, the Lithuanian-born anarchist and women's rights activist, who was imprisoned in 1917 for anti-war activities before being stripped of her citizenship and deported to the Soviet Union.

However, the practice became far less common after the end of the Cold War. Senior officials in the Trump administration are again seeking to expand denaturalization as part of an effort to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history.

Under US law, prosecutors can ask a court to strip citizenship from people born abroad if they deliberately concealed a “material fact” in their naturalization application that would otherwise have disqualified them.

But Trump's effort to expand denaturalization procedures has drawn pushback from human rights groups, which argue it could leave those affected stateless. Critics also warn that Trump is seeking to use denaturalization to target specific groups he regards as opponents or political enemies.

Last year, for example, the Trump administration said it would seek to denaturalize a large number of Somali Americans after allegations emerged in Minnesota of child care fraud involving the Somali community. “Send them back to where they came from, Somalia, perhaps the worst and most corrupt country on earth,” Trump wrote at the time.

Trump's Republican allies, notably Representative Andy Ogles, have also raised the possibility of stripping citizenship from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda. Trump himself once falsely suggested that Mamdani might be in the US illegally. At one point, Trump even floated the idea of denaturalizing tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, a close ally and adviser to his second administration, after the two fell out in 2025.

Trump has also pushed to abolish birthright citizenship, which applies to nearly all children born in the US, with some exceptions such as the children of diplomats and foreign military personnel. Birthright citizenship is protected under the US Constitution and cannot be revoked in the way naturalized citizenship can.

In June, the US Supreme Court rejected Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship, but legal battles have continued since the president issued a second executive order also aimed at limiting how birthright citizenship is applied.