- Trump directs immigration agencies to flag up to 200 denaturalisation cases monthly
- USCIS staff redeployed nationwide to review past citizenship approvals
- Justice Department told to prioritise fraud and security-related cases
- Move comes amid Trump’s renewed crackdown on immigration policy
President Donald Trump has ordered US immigration authorities to begin identifying between 100 and 200 potential denaturalisation cases every month, marking a major escalation in his administration’s hardline approach to citizenship enforcement.
According to a report by NBC News, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), operating under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has reassigned personnel and dispatched legal experts to field offices across the country.
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Their task is to re-examine previously approved naturalisation applications and identify cases that could be forwarded to the Department of Justice for possible legal action.
USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said the agency is acting strictly on evidence of wrongdoing.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward fraud in the naturalisation process and will pursue denaturalisation proceedings for any individual who lied or misrepresented themselves,” he said.
He added that the agency would continue working closely with federal prosecutors to ensure that citizenship is retained only by those who legally qualify for it.
The Justice Department has reportedly instructed its attorneys to treat denaturalisation cases as a priority. Officials cited concerns involving individuals accused of posing national security threats, committing war crimes, or engaging in large-scale Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Beyond those categories, prosecutors have also been given broad discretion to pursue “any other cases the division determines to be sufficiently important,” according to internal guidance.
Trump has long made citizenship and immigration enforcement a central theme of his political agenda. He is currently pushing for expanded authority to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to foreign nationals — a matter now before the Supreme Court.
In a Thanksgiving message last year, Trump said his administration would remove anyone who was not a “net asset” to the country and vowed to denaturalise migrants who he claimed undermine domestic stability.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly defended his renewed immigration crackdown, arguing that stricter controls are essential to national security and to improving the vetting process for migrants entering the United States.
