LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Trump administration says it wants to accelerate efforts to take away the citizenships of some naturalized Americans. As NPR's Lilly Quiroz reports, it's part of the administration's efforts to remove immigrants - Americans, in this case - they say should not be in the U.S.
LILLY QUIROZ, BYLINE: In a document circulated recently to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department, the administration says it wants to denaturalize 100 to 200 people per month in 2026. It also says USCIS should work with the Department of Justice to meet that quota. NPR hasn't seen the document, which was first obtained by The New York Times. USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser told NPR that the goal is to prioritize the denaturalization of people who have been found lying or misrepresenting themselves in the naturalization process. Now, the Trump administration wanting to denaturalize people is not new. Establishing a quota is. Elizabeth Taufa is with the San Francisco-based Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She says denaturalization has historically been used in rare cases.
ELIZABETH TAUFA: The traditional example was, like, Nazis who had lied about their Nazi membership and come to the United States and assumed a different identity. And later on, it was found out that they were war criminals, and so they were denaturalized as a result of that.
QUIROZ: In June, the DOJ disseminated similar guidance, saying that they would prioritize denaturalization to advance the administration's goal of rooting out people who have become citizens unlawfully. President Trump's administration is not the first to target people accused of naturalizing illegally. Taufa says under President Barack Obama, new digital tools were launched to find potential cases of naturalization fraud.
TAUFA: Every single time this happens, it creates this horrible chilling effect in the naturalized citizen and eligible-to-naturalize population, where folks get scared. And, like, that, you know, unfortunately, is the biggest impact.
QUIROZ: During Trump's first administration, about 170 denaturalization cases were sent to court. That's according to an analysis conducted by researchers at Hofstra University's National Immigration Forum. Taufa says it would be a Herculean undertaking for the administration to meet the 100-to-200-per-month quota.
TAUFA: I mean, not without cutting some corners. And I think we've seen this administration is very willing to set legal precedent aside.
QUIROZ: Immigration law experts and advocates say these efforts will likely be challenged in court.
Lilly Quiroz, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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