U.S. Targets Hundreds of Naturalized Citizens for Deportation

The U.S. government is launching a major effort to strip citizenship from hundreds of people. According to The New York Times, internal immigration agency guidance calls for up to 200 cases per month. This is a sharp increase in denaturalization cases. Denaturalization is the rare process of removing a person’s citizenship after it was granted. Officials say they are targeting people who gained citizenship by fraud. They focus on those who hid past criminal histories or used fake identities. Critics express deep concern. They argue the effort could unfairly target immigrants for minor errors. They also fear it creates fear in naturalized citizen communities. Citizenship is normally permanent. Federal lawyers previously brought only a few dozen denaturalization cases each year.