Trump’s Citizenship Revocation Push Hits Legal Roadblocks

President Trump’s vow to revoke the citizenship of hundreds of naturalized Americans is proving far more difficult to execute than anticipated, as legal hurdles, due process requirements, and the inherent complexity of denaturalization cases slow the administration’s aggressive campaign. According to NPR, a review of 34 publicly announced denaturalization cases filed or resolved by the Justice Department as of May 2026 found only 11 actual revocations of citizenship.

The Scope of the Effort

The Trump administration has made denaturalization a top enforcement priority. A June 2025 memo signed by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate placed denaturalization among the top five priorities for the Civil Division, directing attorneys to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.” The DOJ has filed 64 cases in the last 16 months, surpassing the total filed during all four years of the Biden administration.

According to The Guardian, the Justice Department has identified 384 foreign-born U.S. citizens whose citizenship it wants to revoke, with a top DOJ official, Francey Hakes, describing this as “the first wave of cases.” USCIS has been asked to supply the DOJ with 100 to 200 possible denaturalization cases per month during the 2026 fiscal year, as NBC News reported.

Legal and Practical Constraints

Denaturalization faces several inherent obstacles that make mass processing nearly impossible. Unlike deportation proceedings, naturalized citizens are entitled to be heard by federal judges, not immigration judges employed by the DOJ. Each case requires a civil or criminal trial, and proving wrongdoing in federal court is difficult and resource-intensive.

“These are cases in which the law is pretty clear that people are entitled to due process,” said Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor at Boston College who specializes in immigration. “They’re entitled to be heard by a federal judge, not just an immigration judge. So the protections in place for people facing denaturalization are pretty robust.”

Ricky Murray, a former USCIS Chief of Staff for Refugee and International Operations, told Newsweek the plan is “virtually impossible” to execute at scale. “People who’ve been working on denaturalization programs recognize that the standard is extremely high,” he said.

The Cases So Far

The cases reviewed by NPR largely involve allegations of fraud, child sexual abuse, terrorism-related activity, war crimes, and drug trafficking. In one case, the DOJ revoked the citizenship of Melchor Munoz, a Florida resident, after arguing he concealed drug dealing during his naturalization process. Munoz plans to appeal.

Another case involved Elliott Duke, a U.S. Army veteran originally from the U.K., who was denaturalized after being convicted of distributing child sexual abuse material. Duke, who became stateless after the revocation, told NPR: “My heart shattered when I read the lines [of the order]. My world broke apart.”

Concerns Over Politicization

Critics, including former DOJ attorneys and legal scholars, warn that the denaturalization power could be used for political retribution. Cassandra Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, argued that “the denaturalization efforts are an attempt to suppress the political speech of naturalized citizens.”

“It’s just a dangerous road to go down for denaturalization,” Robertson said. “Once it becomes easy to take somebody’s citizenship away — it becomes easy to take anybody’s citizenship away.”

A former DOJ attorney who worked in the Office of Immigration Litigation said leaders pressured lawyers to generate cases quickly, sometimes by combing through news stories or social media posts involving naturalized citizens.

What’s Next

While the administration has assigned denaturalization cases to U.S. attorneys offices across the country, legal experts remain skeptical that a significant surge is achievable. Kanstroom said he does not “see an easy pathway for this administration to fast-track denaturalizations or do end runs around the judiciary.”

With roughly 26 million naturalized Americans in the U.S. and approximately 800,000 people becoming naturalized citizens each year, the administration’s ambitions face a stark reality: the legal protections that make U.S. citizenship difficult to revoke remain firmly in place.