Tension as US moves to revoke citizenship of 25 million naturalised immigrants
By Jeffrey Agbo
The United States government is intensifying efforts to strip citizenship from certain naturalised Americans through a newly surfaced Justice Department memorandum that instructs federal attorneys to prioritise civil denaturalisation cases against individuals who committed specific crimes or provided false information during their naturalisation process.
According to The Guardian which reported on the development Monday, the memo—dated June 11—authorises civil proceedings against those who “illegally procured” their citizenship or did so by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.”
The implications are sweeping: nearly 25 million US citizens who immigrated and later became naturalised—based on 2023 data—could be impacted if they fall into one of ten priority categories outlined in the memo.
Unlike criminal prosecutions, civil denaturalisation cases do not guarantee a right to legal representation, and the government bears a lower burden of proof.
The document states that enforcement will focus on individuals involved in “the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses … [as well as] naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the US.”
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The Justice Department’s civil rights division has been central to implementing key policy shifts under the Trump administration. These include dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, halting transgender healthcare access, and reshaping immigration enforcement mechanisms.
These efforts come amid rising concern over the treatment of migrants. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported its 13th in-custody death for the 2025 fiscal year—surpassing the 12 deaths recorded during the entire previous fiscal year.
Last week, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan resigned as the Justice Department’s civil rights division launched an inquiry into the school’s DEI programs and its race-conscious scholarship criteria.
Additionally, the department has filed lawsuits against 15 district attorneys in Maryland who opposed the immediate deportation of migrants contesting removal orders.
Internally, the civil rights division is reportedly facing turmoil. A recent NPR report indicates that nearly 70% of the division’s attorneys—around 250 lawyers—resigned between January and May 2025, citing disillusionment with the department’s changing mandate.
The memo’s directives have already led to at least one revocation. On June 13, a judge stripped citizenship from Elliott Duke, a U.S. military veteran originally from the UK, who had been convicted of distributing child sexual abuse material—a fact he failed to disclose during his naturalisation.
Immigration rights advocates warn that the civil litigation route opens the door to abuses by limiting due process.
“It is kind of, in a way, trying to create a second class of US citizens,” said Sameera Hafiz, policy director at the Immigration Legal Resource Center, in an interview with NPR.
