Denaturalization Crackdown: DOJ Moves to Strip Citizenship From 12 Americans on May 8, 2026

The Trump administration escalated its sweeping denaturalization campaign on Friday, May 8, 2026, filing federal cases against a dozen naturalized US citizens accused of concealing terrorist ties, war crimes, espionage, and sexual abuse during the naturalization process. Officials say this is only the beginning of a historic citizenship revocation effort.

Denaturalization Cases Filed Today: Who Is Being Targeted

The Department of Justice announced it filed denaturalization actions in various US district courts against 12 individuals accused of serious offenses — including providing material support to a terrorist group, committing war crimes, and sexually abusing a minor.

The dozen cases include a Catholic priest from Colombia accused of sexually abusing a child, several men connected with al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab, a gun trafficker, and a man from Cuba who became a US ambassador while allegedly spying for his native country.

Denaturalization and Terrorism: Key Cases in the DOJ Announcement

Khalid Ouazzani, a 48-year-old native of Morocco, naturalized in 2006 while authorities say he was already working with al-Qaeda, including assisting in a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. By 2007, just one year after naturalizing, he sent al-Qaeda tens of thousands of dollars in financial support and in 2008 took an oath of allegiance to the terrorist organization.

Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, a native of Iraq who entered the US in 2009 claiming his family was attacked by al-Qaeda, is accused of lying under oath about his criminal and family history. Iraq has sought his extradition for the premeditated murder of two Iraqi police officers in 2006, identifying him as a leader in the al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

DOJ Denaturalization Push: The Scale of the 2026 Campaign

Between 1990 and 2017, the United States averaged approximately 11 denaturalization cases per year. Even during the first Trump administration, the Justice Department filed just over 100 total cases between 2017 and early 2025. New guidance now calls for up to 2,400 referrals annually — a more than twentyfold increase over historical averages.

The DOJ has already launched a campaign targeting 384 individuals in an initial litigation wave, with civil litigators in 39 regional US attorney offices assigned to handle the caseload. Senior officials have described this group as the "first wave of cases" the government intends to pursue.

What Acting AG Todd Blanche Said About Denaturalization

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the second Trump administration is pursuing more denaturalization cases now than in the last nine years and warned that immigrants who obtained American citizenship fraudulently should be "worried." He told CBS News: "If you're going to come and become a citizen in this country, but you're going to do it by fraud, you're going to do it in a way that's illegal, you should be worried."

Blanche stated: "Who our targets are? We are not limiting ourselves to anyone in particular except to say that unfortunately there are a lot of US citizens who shouldn't be."

The Legal Standard for Denaturalization — What Must Be Proven

The legal standard is demanding. Under a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, the government must prove not only that an applicant made a false statement, but also that the false statement was material to their eligibility for citizenship. Civil denaturalization cases can take years to resolve due to these strict requirements and constitutional protections.

Prosecutors must meet a high bar, proving with "clear and convincing" evidence that material fraud occurred during the naturalization process. A former federal prosecutor noted it must be "something material" — meaning citizenship would not have been granted had the Department of Homeland Security known the truth at the time.

Denaturalization Categories: What the DOJ Is Prioritizing

The DOJ has established priority categories for the denaturalization campaign targeting naturalized citizens in 2026.

Internal USCIS guidance calls for 100 to 200 denaturalization referrals per month throughout fiscal year 2026, signaling an unprecedented expansion of citizenship revocation that legal scholars and civil liberties advocates say is unlike anything seen in modern US immigration history.