The administration of former US President Donald Trump has directed immigration authorities to begin identifying between 100 and 200 potential denaturalisation cases every month, according to reports.
As reported by the Economic Times on Friday, an NBC News investigation revealed that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), operating under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has reassigned staff and deployed specialists to field offices nationwide. Their task is to re-examine previously approved naturalisation applications.
The goal of the review process is to provide the Department of Justice with a steady pipeline of cases for possible legal action through its Office of Immigration Litigation.
USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said the agency only acts when there is evidence of fraud or misrepresentation during the citizenship process.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud in the naturalisation process and will pursue denaturalisation proceedings for any individual who lied or misrepresented themselves,” he said, according to NBC News.
He added that the agency would continue working closely with the Justice Department to ensure that US citizenship is retained only by those who lawfully qualify for it.
The Justice Department has reportedly instructed its attorneys to give priority to denaturalisation cases, particularly those involving individuals linked to national security threats, war crimes, or large-scale Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
Officials also noted that legal action could be taken in “any other cases” deemed significant enough by the department, giving authorities broad discretion over which cases to pursue.
Citizenship policy has remained a major focus of Trump’s political agenda. He has repeatedly pushed for stricter immigration enforcement and is currently seeking the authority to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to foreign nationals , a matter now before the Supreme Court.
In a Thanksgiving message shared last year, Trump stated that his administration would remove individuals he described as not being a “net asset” to the United States and would pursue denaturalisation of migrants he claimed were undermining domestic stability.
