The Trump administration has undertaken the largest coordinated denaturalization campaign in modern U.S. history. The move has sparked outrage from the usual suspects, but it is the right decision and it sends a clear and important message.
Naturalized citizenship is a solemn privilege. Those granted it should cherish it and recognize it for the wonderful opportunity that it manifestly is. Those who exploited America when it opened its doors to them should face serious consequences, including the loss of citizenship when that citizenship was illegally obtained.
On June 8, the Department of Justice announced that it had filed denaturalization actions against 17 naturalized citizens accused of serious crimes.
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The people targeted by the DOJ are from Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. They stand accused of offenses ranging from immigration fraud to sexual abuse of a minor to a $36 million health care fraud scheme in Florida.
“When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “This Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process.”
The era when people came to America, exploited its goodwill, and broke its laws is coming to an end. It’s about time. We hope this new resolve will continue through all subsequent administrations.
But our hope may not be fulfilled, for the Left is displeased with what has been done, and its stupidest adherents are making themselves heard.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), a naturalized citizen, called the administration’s efforts “unconstitutional.” She claimed that this has “never been about law and order for Republicans.” Rather, “it’s all about getting immigrants” and “terrorizing immigrant communities.” So goes the tedious and reflexive rhetoric of national dissolution.
Law and order is precisely what this is about. Laws without enforcement are hardly more than suggestions. Consequences are deterrence, and in cases of fraud, abuse, and serious criminal conduct, the consequences are deservedly severe.
Nor is denaturalization inherently unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has long recognized the federal government’s authority to revoke citizenship when it was illegally procured or obtained through concealment or willful misrepresentation.
Between 1990 and 2017, the U.S. government filed an average of 11 denaturalization cases a year, under Republican and Democratic administrations.
What is different now is the scope and scale of the remedial action.
USCIS guidance issued in December 2025 reportedly directed field offices to supply the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation with 100 to 200 denaturalization case referrals per month in fiscal 2026.
In a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing this month, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said, “It is absolutely beyond me why, with all of the challenges facing America, we are talking about the denaturalization of citizens.” There is much that is beyond Sen. Durbin, as his career has demonstrated.
The Trump administration has assigned priority to revoking citizenship for good reason.
By pursuing denaturalization against those who abused the naturalization process, the U.S. is signaling that citizenship matters and is to be protected according to its value. It is also signaling that it values the law-abiding citizens, native-born and naturalized alike, who respect the country and its laws.
This stands in stark contrast to European nations that welcomed immigrants, only to see some of them disregard their adopted nation’s laws and customs. That has had a corrosive effect on social trust, and it must not be allowed to happen here.
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The Trump administration is signaling that citizenship matters. We are not “citizens of the world,” as some on the left like to claim, but citizens of the United States, which is a much greater thing.
The United States is not like other countries, and all of our citizens, naturalized and otherwise, should be grateful for the rights and privileges this country affords them.
