Trump Administration Moves to Revoke Naturalized Citizenship From 17 People

The Justice Department moved to strip 17 individuals of their citizenship for “serious offenses,” filing denaturalization actions in U.S. district courts around the country. Trump administration officials say the immigrants failed to disclose unlawful behavior during their naturalization proceedings.

The Trump administration “maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday in a press release about the DOJ’s actions.

Officials told CBS News, which was the first to report on the denaturalization push, that it’s the largest effort yet by President Donald Trump to revoke citizenship.

Many of the 17 individuals were convicted on fraud or drug charges, officials said, while six were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sexual abuse involving children.

Denaturalization occurs when an “individual’s status reverts back to the status held before becoming a U.S. citizen,” according to a recent congressional overview of the process.

Between 1990 and 2017, the U.S. filed an average of 11 denaturalization cases a year. The Trump administration identified 384 foreign-born Americans to target with denaturalization proceedings in April, according to a report from The New York Times.

Trump denaturalized an average of 42 individuals a year during his first term in office and committed to “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” during his second presidency.

Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term that empowered his administration to reinvigorate the push to “identify and take appropriate action” against individuals who violate the federal denaturalization statute — including those who “unlawfully procured” citizenship.

“American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the press release.

The individuals targeted in Monday’s announcement hail from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Jamaica, India, the Dominican Republic, Somalia, China, Congo, Trinidad and Tobago and the Philippines.

Among them is Neeraj Sharma, who is accused of fraudulently signing and filing 11 H-1B visa petitions through a staffing company.

The Justice Department announced last month it was seeking to denaturalize 12 individuals. That group hailed from many of the same countries as the latest group, but some individuals in last month’s push were accused of “providing material support to a terrorist group” and “committing war crimes.”