Memo says those subjected to civil proceedings are not entitled to an attorney like they are in criminal cases
The Trump administration has officially expanded its denaturalization efforts with a newly released Justice Department memo directing federal attorneys to prioritize stripping U.S. citizenship from certain naturalized individuals who have committed crimes or misled immigration authorities.
The memo, published on June 11, instructs attorneys to pursue civil cases to revoke citizenship from individuals who either “illegally procured” naturalization or did so by “willful misrepresentation” or concealment of key facts. The move specifically targets the roughly 25 million U.S. citizens who were born outside the country and later naturalized, according to 2023 data.
The guidance outlines 10 priority categories for denaturalization. These include individuals involved in war crimes, human rights violations, and serious criminal activity, including gang affiliation and financial or medical fraud. The memo also emphasizes that civil denaturalization proceedings do not provide the same protections as criminal cases — such as the right to a government-appointed attorney — and require a lower burden of proof.
Justice Department attorneys are now granted broader discretion to seek denaturalization, including in cases where individuals lied on immigration forms, committed fraud, or were referred by U.S. attorney offices. The policy significantly strengthens the role of the department’s civil rights division, which has also been tasked with advancing other Trump administration priorities, such as dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and restricting access to gender-affirming healthcare.
These policy shifts come amid other developments that reflect the administration’s increasingly aggressive stance on immigration and civil rights enforcement. ICE has reported 13 in-custody migrant deaths in the current fiscal year — already surpassing last year’s total of 12. Meanwhile, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan resigned under pressure from a civil rights division probe into the school’s DEI programs and use of race in scholarships and academic programs.
The Justice Department has also sued 15 district attorneys in Maryland after a court order blocked the swift deportation of migrants facing removal challenges. Inside the civil rights division itself, turmoil is mounting. According to NPR, roughly 70% of the division’s attorneys — around 250 lawyers — have left since January, amid what insiders describe as a dramatic shift away from the division’s historic mission of combating racial discrimination.
The administration’s new emphasis on denaturalization is already yielding results. On June 13, a federal judge stripped citizenship from Elliott Duke, a U.S. military veteran originally from the United Kingdom, after it was revealed he had concealed a conviction for distributing child sexual abuse material during his naturalization process.
Immigration attorneys warn that this push for denaturalization through civil courts strips individuals of key legal protections and accelerates the process. “It is kind of, in a way, trying to create a second class of U.S. citizens,” said Sameera Hafiz, policy director at the Immigration Legal Resource Center, in an interview with NPR.
