FIRST LINE: 5 Things You Need to Know About Denaturalization: The Growing Threat to Your Citizenship
- Denaturalization is the legal process of revoking a person's U.S. citizenship, typically because it was obtained through fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment of material facts. Unlike deportation, which removes a non-citizen, denaturalization strips away the highest legal status an immigrant can hold.
- The government can target you if you lied during your naturalization interview, such as hiding a criminal record, previous deportation order, or even failure to pay taxes. Recent efforts have also targeted dual citizens for alleged ties to terrorism or political activism, expanding the scope beyond outright fraud.
- You do not have the same protections as a U.S.-born citizen. If denaturalized, you can be placed in removal proceedings and deported, even if you have lived in the U.S. for decades, have family here, or no longer have ties to your country of origin.
- Operation Janus, a recent federal initiative, identified hundreds of thousands of naturalized citizens whose background checks were never completed. This has led to a spike in denaturalization cases, especially against older immigrants from certain countries, raising concerns of racial and ethnic targeting.
- Fighting denaturalization is extremely difficult and expensive. You typically need a specialized immigration attorney, as the government has the burden of proof but uses complex evidence. Even a naturalized citizen can be left stateless if their original country refuses to take them back, creating a legal black hole.