Law used to kick out Nazis could be used to strip citizenship from many more Americans
Source: CNN Politics
Updated 7:34 AM EDT, Fri July 4, 2025
Washington CNN For decades, the US Department of Justice has used a tool to sniff out former Nazis who lied their way into becoming American citizens: a law that allowed the department to denaturalize, or strip, citizenship from criminals who falsified their records or hid their illicit pasts. That power, under the new Trump administration, may be broadening.
According to a memo issued by the Justice Department last month, attorneys should aim their denaturalization work to target a much broader swath of individuals anyone who may pose a potential danger to national security. The directive appears to be a push towards a larger denaturalization effort that fits with the Trump administrations hardline immigration policies.
These could leave some of the millions of naturalized American citizens at risk of losing their status and being deported. People who have committed violent crimes, are members or associates of gangs and drug cartels or have committed fraud should also be prioritized, the memo, issued by the head of the DOJs Civil Division, said.
But for many officials and experts, the real concern, they say, is that it is designed to strike fear in the hearts of legal immigrants across the country particularly those who are at odds with Trump himself. The politicization of citizenship rights is something that really worries me, I think its just flatly inconsistent with our democratic system, Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, told CNN.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/politics/justice-department-trump-denaturalization

JoseBalow
(7,843 posts)What's a "gang?"
Jack Valentino
(2,728 posts)and launder the money to their uber-rich overlords.... a "gang"
Norrrm
(2,230 posts)Immigration DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship
Trump's perfect judge... Roland Freisler
Such a keen legal mind that he put into law that original citizenship could be revoked...
Start approx 1:53 on the timeline.
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2na fisherman
(16 posts)"May pose a POTENTIAL danger." So who determines this and what kind of specific danger to national security are they talking about?
Spitting on the sidewalk may be deemed dangerous to natsec. I think it's intentionally vague so it can be a way to deport anyone who disagrees with the regime. It might even be construed as a "Bill of Attainder" which is unconstitutional because naturalized citizens are declared guilty and punished without trial.
Igel
(36,916 posts)It was sensationalistic and the later ones provoked an outcry that will seem familiar in its rhetoric.
After years of being in this country, working and paying taxes, establishing a family and being part of the community, the vulnerable 70- or 80-something is being tossed back into a country he doesn't really know and has no connections.
BOSSHOG
(43,144 posts)Round up elected republicans in Washington. Youd have a 90%+ success rate.
Jack Valentino
(2,728 posts)Orrex
(65,478 posts)I was ridiculed and scolded for my amateur's grasp of The Mighty Constitution, mocked for suggesting such a thing, and assured that it could never happen because there's no mechanism for it.
Fast forward a few years, and it turns out that anyone who annoys the fascist Trump regime could be booted out of the country with relative ease.
markodochartaigh
(3,255 posts)But I think that the ceo's should be incarcerated here, I dont agree with dumping our trash on foreign shores.
Igel
(36,916 posts)That's the difference. You were born here? Nope, you weren't extended the privilege of becoming a citizen, you're not naturalized.
I was born in the US back in the late '50s; even if soil-based citizenship weren't a thing, both parents were citizens and had resided in the US their entire lives. No naturalization for me.
Marthe48
(21,108 posts)and ignoring laws that would stop their crime sprees.
JT45242
(3,459 posts)Mango Mussolini could get out of his prenup that way. Deport her.
KPN
(16,740 posts)pose a potential danger to national security. No?