3 ways a US citizen can be denaturalized
Story by Billal Rahman, Newsweek, 3/31/26
Denaturalization is the legal process by which U.S. citizenship granted through naturalization is revoked, and it can only be carried out by a federal court following a formal proceeding.
Newsweek has contacted immigration benefits agency U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for comment via email.
Why It Matters
It only applies to individuals who obtained U.S. citizenship after immigrating, not to those who acquired citizenship at birth. Under federal law, citizenship may be revoked only in narrow circumstances, such as fraud or willful misrepresentation during the naturalization process, illegal procurement of citizenship, or certain cases tied to criminal conduct.
In addition, limited provisions apply in specific situations, such as military-based naturalization, where failure to meet required conditions of service may also lead to revocation. In all cases, the government must meet a high evidentiary standard and prove its case in a civil or criminal proceeding, making denaturalization a rare, resource-intensive process that is determined individually by a judge.
What To Know
The first and most common ground is illegal procurement of citizenship. This applies when a person did not actually meet the legal requirements for naturalization at the time citizenship was sought, such as failing to satisfy residency, lawful status, or other statutory eligibility criteria.
The second ground is concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation. In these cases, the government must show that an individual knowingly provided false information or concealed important facts during the naturalization process and that those facts would have affected the decision to grant citizenship to the individual.
The third category applies in narrower circumstances involving individuals who obtained citizenship through military provisions. According to guidance from USCIS, naturalization granted based on military service may be revoked if the individual is discharged under conditions other than honorable before completing the required period of honorable service, typically five years. This ground is tied specifically to the conditions under which citizenship was granted rather than to fraud or misrepresentation.
Denaturalization involves coordination between agencies such as USCIS, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice, including its Office of Immigration Litigation. Cases typically begin when USCIS identifies potential fraud or eligibility concerns and refers them to the Justice Department for possible action. The process cannot be completed administratively and must proceed through litigation in federal court, where a judge determines whether the government has met its burden of proof.
Internal guidance obtained by The New York Times indicates that USCIS field offices have been asked to refer between 100 and 200 denaturalization cases per month to the Justice Department during the 2026 fiscal year. By comparison, just over 120 denaturalization cases were filed between 2017 and 2025.
Ricky Murray, a former senior USCIS official, told Newsweek that the evidentiary threshold for denaturalization is high and that expanding referrals would likely require lowering internal screening thresholds, even though the legal standard required by courts has not changed.
Morgan Bailey, a partner at Mayer Brown and a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, similarly noted that each case must still be individually litigated, which places limits on how many cases can realistically move forward.
Amelia Wilson, assistant professor of law and director of the Immigration Justice Clinic, said denaturalization proceedings are limited to conduct that occurred before naturalization. Post-naturalization criminal activity alone does not provide grounds for revocation under current statutes.
Historically, denaturalization has been used in targeted contexts. After World War II, authorities pursued cases involving individuals accused of concealing involvement in Nazi war crimes. Following the September 11 attacks, efforts became more focused on national security-related fraud and cases emerging from terrorism investigations. More recently, initiatives such as Operation Janus and Operation Second Look have used data matching and record review to identify inconsistencies in immigration files, including cases involving duplicate identities, missing biometric data, or undisclosed prior removal orders.
In January, USCIS launched Operation PARRIS in Minnesota, an initiative focused on reviewing thousands of refugee cases to verify eligibility and identify potential fraud through enhanced background checks and immigration record reviews, with any cases raising concerns referred for further action.
“Minnesota is Ground Zero for the war on fraud,” a DHS spokesperson said in a press release at the time. “This operation in Minnesota demonstrates that the Trump administration will not stand idly by as the U.S. immigration system is weaponized by those seeking to defraud the American people. American citizens and the rule of law come first, always.”
What People Are Saying
Ricky Murray, a former senior USCIS official, told Newsweek: “There’s going to be a lower threshold for what cases are sent for denaturalization from USCIS, but the burden and the standard required by the DOJ to bring these cases in federal court haven’t changed. So I don’t see how there’s going to be significantly more cases brought for denaturalization by DOJ to the federal courts.”
Morgan Bailey, a partner at Mayer Brown and a former senior official at DHS, told Newsweek: “The debate around denaturalization really centers on balancing the government’s interest in addressing fraud or criminal activity and the threshold for when and what kinds of cases warrant this type of review.”
Amelia Wilson, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Immigration Justice Clinic, told Newsweek: “The government can only pursue a person’s denaturalization if there is sufficient evidence that the individual either procured citizenship through fraud or willful misrepresentation or if they did so ‘illegally,’ meaning they never statutorily qualified in the first place.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has made denaturalization a central component of its USCIS mission, increasing efforts to identify and refer potential cases to the DOJ through expanded screening and data review, but any cases that move forward must still meet a high standard and be litigated where a judge determines the outcome on a case-by-case basis, limiting how many referrals ultimately result in denaturalization.