Trump Looks to Strip Naturalized Americans of their Citizenship

St. Croix Times Staff

USVI - The Trump Administration is seeking to take away citizenship from naturalized Americans on a massive scale, although the move likely violates constitutional rights. 

Although a recent Justice Department memo prioritizes national security cases, it also directs the DOJ to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by evidence” across 10 broad priority categories.

Denaturalization is different from deportation, which removes noncitizens from the country. With civil denaturalization, the government files a lawsuit to strip people’s U.S. citizenship after they have become citizens, turning them back into noncitizens who can then be deported. 

The government can only do this act in specific situations. It must prove someone illegally procured citizenship by not meeting the requirements, or that they lied or hid important facts during the citizenship process. 

The Trump Administration’s maximal enforcement approach means pursuing any case where evidence might support taking away citizenship, regardless of priority level or strength of evidence. This has already led to cases like that of Baljinder Singh, whose citizenship was revoked based on a name discrepancy that could easily have resulted from a translator’s error rather than intentional fraud. 

People facing denaturalization receive no free lawyer or public defender, which means that poor defendants often face the government without legal representation. There is no jury trial - just a judge making the decision. Most importantly there is no time limit, so the government can go back decades to build cases. 

It is the opinion by many legal authorities that this system violates basic constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court has called citizenship a fundamental right. Taking away such a fundamental right through civil proceedings that lack constitutional protection - no right to counsel, no trial by jury, and a lower burden of truth - surely must violate the due process of law required by the Constitution when the government seeks to deprive someone of their rights. 

Among the 10 priority categories established in the memo range from national security threats, and war crimes, to various forms of fraud, financial crimes, and most importantly any other cases it deems “sufficiently important to pursue.”

About 20 million naturalized Americans now must worry that any mistake in their decades-old immigration paperwork could cost them their citizenship.