DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship
June 30, 20255:00 AM ET
By Jaclyn Diaz Juliana Kim
The Department of Justice logo is displayed before U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives for a news conference at the agency on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. The DOJ announced in a June memo that it is aggressively prioritizing efforts to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Department leadership is directing its attorneys to prioritize denaturalization in cases involving naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes — and giving district attorneys wider discretion on when to pursue this tactic, according to a June 11 memo published online. The move is aimed at U.S. citizens who were not born in the country; according to data from 2023, close to 25 million immigrants were naturalized citizens.
At least one person has already been denaturalized in recent weeks. On June 13, a judge ordered the revocation of the citizenship of Elliott Duke, who uses they/them pronouns. Duke is an American military veteran originally from the U.K. who was convicted for distributing child sexual abuse material — something they later admitted they were doing prior to becoming a U.S. citizen.
Denaturalization is a tactic that was heavily used during the McCarthy era of the late 1940's and the early 1950's and one that was expanded during the Obama administration and grew further during President Trump's first term. It's meant to strip citizenship from those who may have lied about their criminal convictions or membership in illegal groups like the Nazi party, or communists during McCarthyism, on their citizenship applications.