President Donald Trump confirmed reports that his administration is planning to denaturalize 100-200 people per day in 2026 after New York Times reported about an internal memo that speaks of a new aggressive phase in the president’s immigration crackdown. Trump said he doesn’t know whether he has the power to denturalize but if he has, he would absolutely do it as many criminals came into the country during the Biden administration and now they are naturalized citizens who should not remain in the US.
What is denaturalization?
Opposite of naturalization, denaturalization is the process of taking away an individual’s citizenship. People who are US citizens by birth, which means they were born in the US, cannot be denaturalized. This can happen if officers find that the person lied during the naturalization process, or if there are any serious national security issues involved. But under the present law, it is a long process which will involve the court.
100-200 denaturalization cases per month
The internal memo, as reported by the NYT, was issued to US Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices asking them to supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” in the 2026 fiscal year. The number is astoundingly high, experts said as from 2017 to 2025, there had been just over 120 cases of denaturalization. There are about 26 million naturalized Americans in the country, according to the Census Bureau. More than 800,000 new citizens were sworn in last year, most of whom were born in Mexico, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic or Vietnam, USCIS statistics revealed.
What happens if someone is denaturalized
Most people stripped of their citizenship revert to being legal permanent residents. There is a chance of the administration deporting them ut that involves high-risk individuals.
