The Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Donald Trump has identified 384 foreign-born Americans who could be stripped of their citizenship. The DOJ compiled this list of individuals who were born outside the US, and the administration plans to use it as a starting point for a broader denaturalization effort. Experts are warning that this is just the beginning of a much larger campaign.
The denaturalization process is rare, used mainly against foreign-born Americans who have committed serious crimes or engaged in immigration fraud. However, Trump’s administration has been pushing hard to ramp up these efforts, with officials ordering the Department of Homeland Security to refer over 200 denaturalization cases per month to the DOJ. This marks a significant shift from how such cases have historically been handled in the United States.
The plan, which has been in the pipeline since a Justice Department memo from last June, includes several categories of individuals who could be stripped of their citizenship. These include those accused of being gang or cartel members, or having a “nexus to terrorism.” The wide range of categories included in the plan has raised concerns among legal experts about who could ultimately end up on these lists, reports The Daily Beast.
The Trump administration is targeting citizenship fraud as part of a broader immigration crackdown
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson stated the administration’s position clearly: “Citizenship fraud is a serious crime; anyone who has broken the law and obtained citizenship through fraud and deceit will be held accountable.” This comes amid a wider pattern of aggressive executive decisions, with reports separately emerging about Trump ordering a nuclear strike on Iran that was overruled by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
When a person is denaturalized, they revert to their previous immigration status, which can leave them vulnerable to deportation. This is not a minor legal technicality, losing citizenship means a person can be removed from the country they may have lived in for decades.
The move is already being met with resistance from civil divisions at US attorneys’ offices, which are already dealing with a large number of lawsuits filed by immigrants challenging the legality of their detention under the Trump administration’s ICE crackdown.
As senior DOJ officials were advised in a meeting last week, civil litigators in 39 US attorneys’ regional offices across the country will be assigned to file the denaturalization cases. This is a nationwide operation, not limited to any specific region or city. The scale of the effort suggests the administration is serious about following through on its plans, and legal experts expect the caseload to grow significantly in the coming months.
The 384 individuals on the list are just the “first wave of cases,” according to Francey Hakes, the director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys. This language makes it clear that the administration views this as an ongoing and expanding effort rather than a one-time action.
Questions about who is truly driving the administration’s decisions have also grown louder, with a former vice president claiming Trump is controlled by a foreign entity adding further controversy to the political climate surrounding these moves. Critics have raised concerns that the broad categories used to identify targets could put innocent people at risk of being caught up in the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Civil rights groups have pointed out that the process of denaturalization can be difficult and costly to fight in court, putting those targeted at a serious disadvantage. The full scope of how many people may ultimately face denaturalization proceedings remains unclear, but based on the administration’s stated goals, the numbers could grow well beyond the initial 384 cases already identified.
Published: Apr 24, 2026 10:15 am