The US Department of Justice decides to revoke the citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens | American immigration

Donald Trump’s Justice Department has decided to strip citizenship from 40 naturalized citizens accused of crimes in what officials describe as “the largest” such move in a single period during his administration.

U.S. Justice Department officials announced Monday the filing of “denaturalization suits” against more than three dozen people suspected of committing crimes such as “acting as an agent of a foreign government, committing voluntary manslaughter and committing aggravated sodomy against a man with special needs.”

The denaturalization petitions in question were filed in several federal courts between August 21 and October 2, according to the Justice Department.

Federal Immigration and Nationality Act allows naturalized U.S. citizenship to be revoked by a federal court if the government proves it was obtained illegally by concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.

A statement attributed to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed that the individuals at the center of Monday’s announcement “hid critical facts from the U.S. government and represent serious offenders.”

In previous months, Trump reportedly pushed the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue denaturalization cases en masse. The New York Times reported in April that the Justice Department had identified at least 384 foreign-born U.S. citizens whose naturalizations it wanted to revoke.

Denaturalization applications to the courts often involve people who lied to government authorities during the naturalization process or who obtained citizenship through false marriages. There are also cases where people who have committed criminal offenses can lose their citizenship.

In 2025, the first year of Trump’s second presidency, the Justice Department filed a memo directing its civil division to step up denaturalization efforts, including adopting more categories of individuals eligible for denaturalization — which experts say supports the president’s mass deportation agenda.

Because denaturalization cases are expensive and labor-intensive, the Justice Department has historically pursued them only sporadically.

From 2017 to the end of 2025, the United States denaturalized about 120 people, the Times reported. A Justice Department official said the initiative reported by the Times in April was only “the first wave” of citizenship stripping cases.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice will continue to use the denaturalization process to maintain our national security and protect the American people,” Blanche’s statement Monday said.

The 40 people subject to denaturalization proceedings announced Monday came from various countries, including Mexico, China, Iran, Pakistan and the Philippines.

One of those people was Jinchao Wei, a former U.S. Navy sailor of Chinese descent who was convicted in August 2025 on charges including espionage and illegal export of technical data related to defense articles. Prosecutors said Wei began plotting to sell military secrets to China months before he became a U.S. citizen in May 2022 and covered up that conduct during the naturalization process.

Wei was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison.