The United States government has formalised efforts to revoke U.S. citizenship from certain naturalised citizens through a newly surfaced Justice Department memo that directs federal attorneys to prioritise denaturalisation for individuals who committed specific crimes or misrepresented information during their naturalisation process.
According to a report by The Guardian on Monday, the memo dated June 11, calls for civil proceedings against individuals who either “illegally procured” naturalisation or did so through “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.”
Unlike criminal trials, those facing civil denaturalisation are not entitled to legal representation, and the government faces a lower burden of proof.
At the center of the move according to the report are the estimated 25 million US citizens who immigrated to the country after being born abroad, according to data from 2023, and it lists 10 different priority categories for denaturalisation.
The justice department’s civil rights division has been placed at the forefront of Trump’s policy objectives, including ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes within the government as well as ending transgender treatments, among other initiatives.
That comes as the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency registered its 13th in-custody death for the fiscal year beginning in October 2024. There had been 12 such deaths during the entire fiscal year that finished at the end of September 2024.
