DOJ moves to strip U.S. citizenship from 40 people in its biggest denaturalization push in modern history

American citizenship is supposed to be the one thing the government cannot take back. The Justice Department is now testing that assumption at a scale not seen in modern history.

Between August 21 and October 2, federal prosecutors moved to denaturalize 40 people, stripping them of the citizenship they gained through the naturalization process. That is more denaturalization cases than the past several years combined, and it is happening inside an immigration enforcement apparatus that has been running at full speed all year.

The cases fall into three rough categories. Some involve espionage and national security. Some involve child sexual offenses committed after naturalization, where prosecutors argue the citizenship was obtained under false pretenses about good moral character. And 19 of the 40 involve alleged lies on visa forms, the kind of paperwork fraud that used to draw a warning and now draws a case. Eleven of the 40 are originally from Mexico, the largest single national group.

Denaturalization is one of the rarest powers the federal government holds, used for decades almost exclusively against war criminals and serious fraudsters. The legal standard is high: prosecutors must prove the citizenship was illegally procured or obtained by willful misrepresentation of a material fact. The numbers suggest the department has decided the standard is met more often than anyone previously thought.

Supporters call it long overdue enforcement against people who gamed the system. Critics call it the creation of a second class of citizen whose paperwork can be reopened at the government's convenience. Both sides agree on one thing. Citizenship is no longer the end of the immigration process. It is a status that can be audited.