The Trump administration is ramping up it crackdown on crime. The Department of Justice has issued a memo directing United States attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.”
That could mean stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when charged with crimes. The memo was sent by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.
“Individuals who pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism, espionage, or the unlawful export from the United States of sensitive goods, technology, or information raising national security concerns,” said the memo that was published online on June 11. There were 10 categories of priorities for denaturalization cases in the memo.
According to government data, of the 46.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2022, 24.5 million were naturalized citizens.
Shumate goes on to say in the memo, “The benefits of civil denaturalization include the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to U.S. soil or traveling internationally on a U.S. passport.”
The 10 categories under the denaturalization section “are intended to guide the Civil Division in prioritizing which cases to pursue; however, these categories do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case, nor are they listed in a particular order of importance. Further, the Civil Division retains the discretion to pursue cases outside of these categories as it determines appropriate,” the memo said.
Shumate made it clear that pursuing denaturalization will be among the agency’s top five enforcement priorities for the civil division. The other four:
- Combatting Discriminatory Practices and Policies;
- Ending Antisemitism;
- Protecting Women and Children;
- Ending Sanctuary Jurisdictions.
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