Justice Department aims for 250 denaturalization suits

The Trump administration is significantly expanding efforts to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Americans, with plans to file at least 250 denaturalization lawsuits by October. This represents a dramatic increase in the use of a legal tool historically reserved for rare and extreme cases.

A senior Justice Department official confirmed the target, which follows the filing of 29 such cases in the first two months of this year alone. To put this pace in perspective, only 166 denaturalization cases were filed between 2008 and mid-June 2026, averaging fewer than 10 per year, according to data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Officials describe the push as part of a broader effort to prioritize immigration enforcement and protect the integrity of U.S. citizenship. The department maintains it is targeting individuals who obtained citizenship unlawfully through fraud or by concealing serious criminal conduct, such as sexual abuse offenses or support for terrorism, during the naturalization process. A June 2025 memo from the Justice Department outlined priority categories including national security threats, war crimes, fraud, and undisclosed...