Alienating Citizens

This essay describes the Trump administration’s efforts to strip citizenship from thousands of naturalized immigrants. The author obtained information about the administration’s efforts from Freedom of Information Act requests, legal filings, and interviews. The author places the administration’s efforts in the context of how denaturalization has been used in the past and how it fits in with the Trump administration’s overall enforcement efforts. Between 1990 and 2017, a total of 305 denaturalization cases were filed by the government. The Trump administration plans to examine the cases of 700,000 naturalized immigrants. Having opened a separate office for this purpose, the government is hiring dozens of lawyers and staff to focus on this effort. Thus far, more than 2,500 cases have been flagged for review, and 95 referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. A July 2017 bulletin from the Justice Department to U.S. Attorneys makes clear that the pursuit of denaturalization against an individual will not depend on whether or not that individual poses a security threat. U.S. attorneys are urged to pursue civil denaturalization, rather than criminal denaturalization, because civil denaturalization can be obtained based on conduct that may not amount to a crime Moreover, there is no statute of limitations for civil denaturalization, and a civil case avoids many of the due process protections afforded individuals in criminal cases. The author notes that, in addition to its crackdown on illegal immigration, the administration has also tried to discourage legal immigration by making it much harder to get through the process. With its denaturalization campaign, the author writes, the administration means “to send the message that no immigrant in the United States will ever be secure.” (Maurice Belanger, Maurice Belanger Consulting)

Download now or view online.