USA · Washington
Justice Department Seeks to Revoke Citizenship of 40 People
In brief
The US Justice Department announced on Monday that it has filed civil cases in several federal courts to strip citizenship from 40 naturalized Americans, saying they concealed criminal conduct or other key facts in their applications.
According to the department’s announcement, the complaints were filed between August 21 and October 2, 2026. The cases involve people accused of offences including acting as an agent of a foreign government, voluntary manslaughter and sexual offences. The department described it as the largest number of such complaints filed in a single period under the current administration.
Denaturalization is a civil court process in which the government asks a judge to cancel citizenship that it says was obtained unlawfully, for example by lying on an application. Each case must be decided by a court, and the people named can contest the claims. NBC News, which first reported a draft of the announcement, said the department’s case is that the individuals committed immigration fraud by lying or leaving out facts about their criminal histories.
Attorney General Todd Blanche and other officials said the department will continue to use the process. Critics of expanded denaturalization have long argued that it can create uncertainty for naturalized citizens, although these cases focus on alleged fraud.
Why it matters
Revoking citizenship is rare and serious. These cases will test how far courts allow the government to go in reopening naturalizations, and they matter to the millions of Americans who became citizens through naturalization.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice: Justice Department Moves to Strip Citizenship from 40 Convicted Criminals
- NBC News: DOJ moves to revoke U.S. citizenship for 40 foreign-born Americans
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