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Recent government policy shifts have brought renewed attention to denaturalization—the legal process of revoking U.S. citizenship. While some public commentary have overstated the scope of this issue, there truly is a concerted and renewed movement by the Trump administration to investigate and strip naturalized citizens of their US Citizenship, as recently covered by The New York Times in December of last year. According to the article and internal guidance issued by USICS, the government is looking to pursue 100-200 denaturalization cases a month.
Denaturalization is a process whereby the U.S. government asks a federal court to take away a person’s citizenship after it has already been granted. This is not a routine enforcement tool. It has historically been considered an extraordinary legal remedy and up to now, rarely pursued. In New Jersey, these cases are generally handled in the federal district court located in Newark.
Under the Trump administration, federal agencies, particularly U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), have been reviewing past naturalization applications more aggressively, deliberately looking for cases involving:
USCIS offices serving New Jersey—such as Newark, Cranbury and Mount Laurel—may refer cases to the Department of Justice for court action if they believe a case meets legal standards.
What Typically Happens
There are also serious potentially collateral consequences that can result from denaturalization: family members who directly derived their status from the denaturalized individual may also be at risk. For instance, if a person acquired naturalization through fraud and subsequently filed for his wife, who later obtained permanent residence through the husband based on his status as a US Citizen, the government may question whether the wife obtained her permanent residence lawfully.
The government carries a very high legal burden, and not every mistake necessarily leads to denaturalization. The government generally must prove:
The courts have made clear: innocent mistakes, misunderstandings, clerical errors, and immaterial omissions do not justify taking citizenship away. The information that was deliberately withheld must be meaningful and something that an officer essentially should have known at the time of adjudication. For example, if an applicant intentionally omits information about a felony arrest and conviction for aggravated assault, this is something that should have been mentioned on the N-400 application and disclosed to the officer during the interview. (Aggravated Assault can be considered a Crime Involving Moral Turpitude as well as a potential Aggravated Felony—rendering the individual deportable.) On the other hand, it is arguable whether a missed parking ticket that an applicant may have inadvertently neglected to mention would have impacted the analysis of whether the person merited citizenship. Of course, this is all very fact sensitive but the distinction between what is material and what is not is critically important.
For most people, the answer is no. The vast majority of New Jersey’s naturalized citizens obtained citizenship lawfully and are not at risk. The government cannot just arbitrarily take someone’s citizenship away due to politics or because the President has ramped up rhetoric about people not deserving to be citizens.
That being said, you should pay special attention if you have any of the following in your history:
If any of the above apply to your case, it is worth confirming that these issues were properly addressed during the naturalization process. This also underscores why it is so important to meticulously prepare the application from the very beginning. A carefully prepared application professionally overseen by an attorney should look to ensure accuracy and consistency; prevent misunderstandings that may later appear suspicious; documents good moral character; and protect you against future allegations of misrepresentation.
Many denaturalization concerns originate from applications where people rushed, misunderstood a question, relied on bad advice, or assumed something “didn’t matter.” Having an experienced New Jersey immigration attorney ensures your citizenship application is truthful, complete, and defensible — today and years from now.
This initiative to investigate and reopen already approved naturalization cases should not be confused with USCIS’s new policy guidance directing additional review and a temporary hold on immigration benefit applications involving individuals from designated “high-risk” countries. See PM-602-0194. That policy concerns foreign nationals (from the designated countries) who are applying for benefits as well as those whose benefit applications (such as green cards, work permits, etc.) were approved on or after January 20, 2021. While these policies address different legal processes, they reflect a broader enforcement posture focused on heightened scrutiny and enhanced vetting. The January 1 memorandum does not authorize the revocation of citizenship, nor does it change the legal standards governing denaturalization. Naturalized U.S. citizens cannot lose citizenship based solely on nationality or country of origin.
However, the memorandum does signal that immigration agencies are taking a more cautious approach when reviewing benefit applications that involve complex histories, prior immigration violations, or national security screening concerns. In practice, this can result in:
For individuals who are applying for naturalization—or who have recently naturalized—this underscores the importance of accuracy, consistency, and full disclosure across all immigration filings.
Whether you:
We help individuals across the entire state of New Jersey, including Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Edison, and Freehold.