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The United States Justice Department is seeking to strip US citizenship from 40 naturalized citizens accused of concealing crimes or immigration fraud, in what Attorney General Todd Blanche called the largest denaturalization effort in modern history.
The department filed the civil actions in federal courts between 21 August and 2 October, describing it as the largest batch of such complaints filed in a single period under the Trump administration. The cases span alleged espionage, money laundering, sexual offences against minors, manslaughter and immigration fraud. Officials said the defendants range in age from 26 to 76, with the largest single group originating from Mexico and others from countries including China, Egypt and Pakistan. The denaturalization push arrives as the administration presses several high-profile legal and political fights, with forecasts giving Democrats an 82 per cent chance of taking the House in the midterms.
What the cases allege
Among the individual cases described by officials, one woman is accused of concealing money-laundering activity that began before she became a citizen, while another defendant allegedly failed to disclose a prior conviction for transporting child pornography. Other complaints cite false identities, hidden deportation orders, marriage fraud and undisclosed sexual abuse. The head of the department’s Civil Division said every one of the 40 lied their way into US citizenship and vowed the effort would continue.
Under federal law, naturalized citizenship can be revoked only if it was illegally obtained or secured through concealment of a material fact or wilful misrepresentation — and only a court can order it. The new filings are requests, not verdicts: none of the 40 has yet been stripped of citizenship. Details of the individual cases were set out in the department’s announcement.
A rarely used power, scaled up
Denaturalization was historically vanishingly rare — averaging about 11 cases a year between 1990 and 2017, and just 24 across the entire Biden administration. Researchers tracking federal court records flagged a sharp climb earlier this year. Since January 2025, the department has brought roughly 120 such cases, and officials are said to be aiming for 250 filings by the end of October.
Supporters cast the drive as restoring integrity to naturalization and protecting national security. Critics warn that scaling a once-exceptional power risks sweeping in people whose paperwork errors were minor. Either way, the courts will now decide, case by case, where deception ends and citizenship begins. Further background on the filing surge is available in independent coverage of the announcement.
