After illegal immigration, Donald Trump’s administration will target legal immigrants who were not born on U.S. soil. This target group is not any visa holders, nor green card holders, but naturalized citizens who were not born in the United States. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been quietly working on this over the past few months, NBC News reported. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has sent experts to its offices across the country to find out whether some citizens who naturalized through those offices could be stripped of their citizenship.
100-200 cases per month
Emphasis on Naturalized Citizens aims to provide the Office of Immigration Prosecutions with 100 to 200 potential cases per month, a person familiar with the matter told NBC. Cases of deprivation of citizenship are rare, as they only occur when a person is found to have concealed a criminal history during the naturalization process. The new target of 100-200 cases per month is part of the administration’s aggressive move to clear the country, which compared with a total of 102 such cases reported during President Trump’s first term. USCIS has decided to dedicate staff to this purpose and they are visiting all offices. Since denaturalization is a lengthy process and may not be proven in court, the goal has been kept high so that it can be achieved in at least some cases.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Trajser said the agency reviews cases of naturalized citizens when there is credible evidence that citizenship was obtained through fraud or misrepresentation. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud in the naturalization process and will pursue denaturalization proceedings against any individual who lies or misrepresents,” he said. “We will continue to relentlessly pursue those who undermine the integrity of the U.S. immigration system and work with the Department of Justice to ensure that only those who meet the citizenship criteria retain the privileges of U.S. citizenship.“
What is denaturalization? What is the rationale for this?
Denaturalization is the legal process by which a government revokes a person’s citizenship after he or she has acquired citizenship through naturalization. The most common grounds for deprivation of nationality are:
- Lying on your naturalization application
- conceal criminal history
- Hiding past immigration violations
- Use a false identity
If any of these conditions are discovered, the U.S. Department of Justice will file a civil lawsuit. The government must prove that the person is ineligible for naturalization because they concealed the facts. If citizenship is revoked, the person reverts to their previous immigration status—in most cases, a green card holder. Without valid status, they could face deportation.
