Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the justice department denaturalization push will seek to revoke the citizenship of 17 U.S. citizens accused of immigration fraud. The department called it the largest-ever effort by the U.S. government to use denaturalization powers.
The new complaints add to a campaign that officials had already expanded last month, when they announced a dozen denaturalization cases. Justice Department officials filed federal court complaints across the country in recent days, and they said the cases turn on whether applicants concealed criminal activity or were otherwise ineligible to be naturalized.
Todd Blanche and Markwayne Mullin
Blanche said the department would have “zero tolerance” for abuse of the naturalization process. In response to the effort, he also said, “Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the Trump administration would “continue to use every lawful avenue to denaturalize and remove aliens.” He added: “American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly.”
Federal Court Complaints
The complaints cite the good moral character requirement used in citizenship cases, according to the filings. Officials said some of the 17 targeted citizens were convicted of violent or serious crimes, including sex offenses against children, while others were convicted of fraud crimes or accused of committing immigration fraud.
The named cases span several countries of origin. They include a Haitian immigrant who allegedly sexually abused his daughter, a man from the former Yugoslavia convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 15, and an immigrant from Mexico convicted of receiving sexually explicit images of minors.
Broader Denaturalization Campaign
Other cases include a former Catholic priest born in Colombia accused of child sex abuse, a Filipino-born man who pleaded guilty to a child sex crime, an Indian immigrant accused of filing fraudulent H-1B visa petitions, and the daughter of a Colombian drug trafficker accused of money laundering. Officials also cited a man born in Jamaica convicted of wire fraud, a Cuban-born woman accused of defrauding a tribal casino, and other naturalized citizens accused of using false identities.
Between 1990 and 2017, the Justice Department filed an average of 11 legal complaints per year seeking to denaturalize American citizens. In 2025, the department broadened the categories of naturalized citizens who should be prioritized for denaturalization, and last month officials announced a dozen denaturalization cases. The latest round pushes that effort further, with the government now using federal court filings to test how far it can go under the fraud-based citizenship rules.
For the 17 citizens named in the latest campaign, the next step is the federal court process, where the complaints will be tested against the allegations that they hid criminal history or were never eligible for citizenship in the first place.
