Trump officials pursue record number of cases to strip US citizenship

Top officials have sought to expand the use of rarely invoked laws that can strip naturalised Americans of citizenship.

The Justice Department has touted the 40 citizenship cases as the largest volume of denaturalisation complaints in recent history [File: Patrick Semansky/AP]

The United States Department of Justice has filed 40 new cases seeking to strip naturalised Americans of their citizenship over alleged crimes they have committed.

In a statement on Monday, federal prosecutors said they were targeting individuals accused of “serious offenses”, including money laundering, child sexual abuse, visa fraud and tax evasion.

list 1 of 3 White House ‘looking at’ denaturalising Somali Americans for alleged fraud

list 2 of 3 The Take: Can Trump strip Musk, Mamdani and others of their US citizenship?

list 3 of 3 Can Trump strip Musk, Mamdani and others of their US citizenship?

The statement touted the 40 cases as the largest volume of denaturalisation petitions submitted in such a short period under President Donald Trump. The petitions were filed from late August through early October.

“Today’s announcement marks the largest denaturalization effort in modern history,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice will continue to employ the denaturalization process to maintain our national security and protect the American people.”

The 40 citizens targeted in Monday’s announcement include people from a range of countries, including Mexico, Pakistan, China and Sierra Leone.

They are accused of concealing criminal acts and other facts about themselves as they sought to obtain citizenship. Their criminal convictions largely came after they took their oaths of citizenship.

Two people on the list are also accused of engaging in espionage on behalf of China. Committing these crimes before they became citizens, the Department of Justice alleges, meant these individuals lacked “good moral character” and should have been denied citizenship.

Expanded use of denaturalisation law

The laws to denaturalise US citizens have been used for decades, but historically, they have been reserved for serious crimes.

After World War II, for instance, the US government moved to denaturalise dozens of citizens accused of concealing involvement in the Holocaust or engaging in war crimes.

Notable cases include that of Emma Goldman, a Lithuanian-born anarchist and women’s rights activist who was jailed in 1917 for her antiwar activities, before being denaturalised and deported to the Soviet Union.

But the practice has become much less frequent since the end of the Cold War.

Top officials in the Trump administration, however, have sought to expand denaturalisation as part of a push to conduct the largest deportation operation in US history.

Under US law, prosecutors can ask courts to strip citizenship from those born outside the country if they wilfully concealed a “material fact” during their citizenship application that would have otherwise disqualified them.

But Trump’s efforts to widen denaturalisation proceedings have received pushback from human rights groups, which argue they could leave people stateless.

Critics have also warned that Trump has sought to leverage denaturalisation against specific groups he perceives to be political rivals or enemies.

Last year, for instance, the Trump administration indicated it would seek to denaturalise large numbers of Somali Americans after allegations emerged in Minnesota of daycare fraud involving the Somali diaspora.

“Send them back from where they came, Somalia, perhaps the worst, and most corrupt, country on earth,” Trump wrote at the time.

Members of Trump’s Republican Party, notably Representative Andy Ogles, have also floated the possibility of yanking citizenship from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda. Trump himself has falsely suggested Mamdani may be in the country illegally.

At one point, Trump even floated the idea of withdrawing citizenship from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, a close ally and adviser to his second administration, after the two men had a falling-out in 2025.

Trump has also pushed to do away with birthright citizenship, which is granted to virtually all children born in the US. The few exceptions include the babies of diplomats and foreign military forces.

Birthright citizenship is protected under the US Constitution and cannot be taken away the way naturalised citizenship can.

In June, the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s efforts to dismantle birthright citizenship, but legal battles continue after the president issued a second executive order also seeking to restrict how birthright citizenship is applied.

高层官员试图扩大很少被援引的法律的使用范围，这些法律可以剥夺已入籍美国公民的公民身份。

美国司法部称这 40 起公民身份案件是近年来数量最多的取消公民身份申诉案件。[图片：Patrick Semansky/AP]

美国司法部提起 40 起新诉讼，试图剥夺已入籍美国公民的公民身份，理由是他们涉嫌犯罪。

周一，联邦检察官在一份声明中表示，他们的目标是那些被控犯有“严重罪行”的人，包括洗钱、性虐待儿童、签证欺诈和逃税。

白宫正在考虑以涉嫌欺诈为由取消索马里裔美国人的公民身份（共3项，此为第1项）

列表 2/3 观点：特朗普能否剥夺马斯克、马姆达尼等人的美国公民身份？

列表 3/3：特朗普能否剥夺马斯克、马姆达尼等人的美国公民身份？

声明称，这40起案件是特朗普总统任内短时间内提交的取消公民身份申请数量最多的一次。这些申请是在8月下旬至10月初期间提交的。

“今天的公告标志着现代史上规模最大的取消公民身份行动，”司法部长托德·布兰奇说。

“在特朗普总统的领导下，司法部将继续运用取消公民身份程序来维护国家安全并保护美国人民。”

周一公布的公告中提到的 40 名公民来自多个国家，包括墨西哥、巴基斯坦、中国和塞拉利昂。

他们被指控在申请入籍过程中隐瞒犯罪行为和其他事实。他们的刑事定罪大多发生在他们宣誓入籍之后。

名单上的两人还被指控为中国从事间谍活动。司法部称，这些人是在入籍前犯下这些罪行，这意味着他们缺乏“良好的道德品质”，本应被剥夺公民身份。

扩大取消国籍法的使用范围

剥夺美国公民国籍的法律已经使用了几十年，但从历史上看，这些法律只适用于严重犯罪。

例如，二战后，美国政府取消了数十名被指控隐瞒参与大屠杀或犯下战争罪行的公民的国籍。

值得一提的案例包括艾玛·戈德曼，她是一位出生于立陶宛的无政府主义者和女权活动家，1917 年因其反战活动而被监禁，之后被剥夺国籍并被驱逐到苏联。

但自冷战结束以来，这种做法已经变得不那么常见了。

然而，特朗普政府的高级官员一直试图扩大取消公民身份的范围，以此作为开展美国历史上最大规模驱逐行动的一部分。

根据美国法律，如果出生在国外的人在入籍申请过程中故意隐瞒了原本会使其失去入籍资格的“重要事实”，检察官可以要求法院剥夺其公民身份。

但特朗普扩大取消公民身份程序的努力遭到了人权组织的反对，他们认为这可能会使一些人成为无国籍人士。

批评人士还警告说，特朗普试图利用取消公民身份的政策来对付他认为的政治对手或敌人的特定群体。

例如，去年，特朗普政府表示，在明尼苏达州出现涉及索马里侨民的托儿所欺诈指控后，将寻求取消大量索马里裔美国人的公民身份。

“把他们送回他们来的地方——索马里，那可能是地球上最糟糕、最腐败的国家，”特朗普当时写道。

特朗普所在的共和党成员，特别是众议员安迪·奥格尔斯，也曾提出可能剥夺出生于乌干达的纽约市市长佐兰·马姆达尼的公民身份。特朗普本人也曾错误地暗示马姆达尼可能非法滞留美国。

特朗普一度甚至提出，在与科技企业家埃隆·马斯克（他的亲密盟友和第二届政府的顾问）于 2025 年决裂后，剥夺马斯克的公民身份。

特朗普还力主废除出生公民权，这项权利几乎赋予所有在美国出生的儿童。少数例外情况包括外交官和外国军人的子女。

根据美国宪法，出生公民权受到保护，不能像归化公民权那样被剥夺。

6 月，美国最高法院驳回了特朗普废除出生公民权的努力，但总统随后发布了第二项行政命令，试图限制出生公民权的适用方式，法律斗争仍在继续。