Trump Threatens to Denaturalize U.S. Citizens If They ‘Deserve’ It. Experts Raise Grave Concerns About Future
SOURCE:Time Magazine|BY:Callum Sutherland
Trump is factoring in denaturalization as part of his immigration crackdown.
President Donald Trump is seemingly trying to redefine what counts as an American citizen. Since returning to the White House, he’s not only ramped up his immigration crackdown, but has also questioned the citizenship status of foreign-born U.S. citizens, sparking mass concerns over the potential weaponization of denaturalization.
Trump has paid particular focus to Minnesota, on account of the widespread investigations regarding fraudulent schemes targeting government-funded programs within the state. The President has used the scandal to target Minnesota’s Somali community and has accused them of “destroying” the state, on account of some people of Somali descent being found guilty of involvement with the schemes. He has seemingly taken to blaming the community as a whole rather than the individuals involved.
Referencing members of the Somali community, Trump confirmed this week that his Administration is looking into stripping some Americans of their naturalized state. “I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Trump told the New York Times in an interview conducted Wednesday night. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.”
Although the Trump Administration is actively looking into the criteria for taking away citizenship, the President did not specify the exact foreign-born groups that would be targeted. Instead, he said: “If they deserve to be stripped, I would, yes.” Trump also did not specify what exactly would constitute one to “deserve” the denaturalization process and whether or not he was referring to the current legal parameters for denaturalization.
Eryan Hanlon, immigration lawyer and partner at Greenwood Handlon Kendrick, says that certain legal evidence is required in order to pursue denaturalization. “The Trump Administration would have to prove that they [the citizens] were either committing fraud or lying during their naturalization process—perhaps through a fake marriage, or hiding a felony or a serious crime, or using a false name,” says Hanlon.
TIME has reached out to the White House for comment.
Immigration crackdown: A demonstrator waves an upside-down American flag in front of a Federal building and U.S. Marines during a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids directed by the Trump Administration on July 4, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. Apu Gomes—Getty Images
This is far from the first time Trump and members of his team have referenced denaturalization as part of ongoing efforts to crackdown on immigration. In December, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Administration was “looking at” revoking the citizenship of people of Somali descent if they are convicted in the fraud cases. This somewhat echoed Trump’s own words, as he previously said “send them back to where they came from,” in reference to members of the Somali community in Minnesota.
Trump has even targeted individuals with his threats.
He expressed his desire to strip America-born adversaries of their U.S. citizenship, although it’s unclear how he would legally seek to do that. The President twice threatened to revoke the citizenship of New York-born comedian Rosie O’Donnell, one of his decades-long sparring partners. O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland following Trump’s election win in 2024, rebuffed his commentary.
But Trump’s main focus has been on foreign-born American citizens. He previously questioned the citizenship status of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. And in December, he lashed out at Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who was born in Somalia and gained her U.S. citizenship aged 17 in 2000. During a speech in Pennsylvania, Trump told a rousing crowd: “We ought to get her (Omar) the hell out.” He then listened as the crowd chanted “send her back.”
Should Trump, who campaigned on a platform of mass deportation, follow through on his threats against foreign-born Americans, it would mark a significant escalation of his immigration crackdown. In November, the President said he was terminating the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. After a shooting in Washington, D.C. killed National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom—a crime for which an Afghan national emerged as the sole suspect—Trump ordered a reexamination of green card entries into the U.S. for people from 19 countries, including Somalia. That list of countries with full or partial travel restrictions was later expanded to 39.
Furthermore, in December, internal documents from the Trump Administration to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field offices reportedly pushed a monthly quota for denaturalization figures going into 2026. The USCIS offices were requested to “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month,” in guidance obtained by the New York Times. The quota would be a sharp increase in the number of cases for denaturalizing U.S. citizens, with 305 cases filed between 1990 and 2017, an average of 11 annually, prior to Trump taking office, according to the National Immigration Forum. Trump’s first term saw a higher case number than the average, with 42 filed annually under his Administration.
Smita Dazzo, deputy legal lead of HIAS, an organization based in the U.S. that provides legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, believes that the Trump Administration would have difficulty in achieving the reported quota, if it so desired. “I think it would be very unlikely that if this program were to go through, especially at the scale this Administration wants it to, that it would not be challenged legally,” she says, explaining that such cases would have to go through federal courts.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts responded to the reported quota push by condemning “attacks on immigrants and their rights to citizenship.”
“The Trump Administration’s latest anti-immigrant attack is xenophobia disguised as policy. It is disgusting and cruel to revoke the citizenship of Americans who have called this country home for years. All American citizens—regardless of where they were born—deserve all of our nation's constitutional protections,” he said.
What is the legal basis for stripping an American of their citizenship?
According to USCIS, a naturalized American can only have their citizenship removed “if there is deliberate deceit on the part of the person in misrepresenting or failing to disclose a material fact or facts on his or her naturalization application and subsequent examination.”
Cases of denaturalization are a rare occurrence, as all naturalized citizens have already passed through vetting during immigration interviews and green card applications, says Dazzo, adding that she has never seen a client denaturalized in her 16 years of legal work.
Cases of successful denaturalization mostly come down to if the misrepresentation was wilful, and such misrepresentation led to the person in question gaining their citizenship, or if the citizenship was procured illegally.
A naturalized citizen can also be revoked of their status “if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization.
The USCIS will refer such cases for revocation should there be “sufficient evidence to establish that the person is subject to one of the grounds of revocation.” These cases have no statute of limitations, according to the Justice Department, which in 2020 created a dedicated section for denaturalization during the first Trump Administration.
However, the Trump Administration cannot legally revoke a person’s citizenship for crimes they have committed. “Denaturalization is not a penalty for criminal convictions. The two are not related,” says Dazzo.
“If somebody committed fraud prior to citizenship and did not disclose it on their naturalization application, they could be denaturalized for that purpose,” says Dazzo, as it would qualify as a failure to disclose material facts. In agreement, Hanlon says: “It would have to be fraud in obtaining their citizenship, rather than if this person has committed a crime since.”
This legal basis pulls into question the Trump Administration's active efforts to find a way to strip any foreign-born Americans convicted in the Minnesota fraud cases of their citizenship.
In light of this, Dazzo is concerned that the Trump Administration could instead look for small details in former citizenship applications and argue them as intended misrepresentations.
“They may find any kind of mistake that could have been made, no matter how insignificant, and then claim that it's a material misrepresentation worthy of denaturalization,” says Dazzo.
Hanlon is also cautious that the application of the grounds to revoke citizenship could be stretched by the Trump Administration.
“If someone accidentally put the wrong birth date on an application and the government wants to denaturalize them, could that be twisted to be considered fraudulent when really it was a typo?” she notes.
An added concern is the possibility of eventual deportation efforts.
"U.S. citizens cannot be deported, even if they originally immigrated here from somewhere else. But when someone is denaturalized, they revert back to their status as a green card holder. And as a green card holder, you can be deported," says Dazzo, emphasizing the precarious nature of stripping someone of their citizenship status.
