Story perspectives

Administration pushes 200 monthly denaturalizations, DOJ targets 384

4/25/2026

Summary

Story summary

The administration ordered the Department of Homeland Security to forward up to 200 denaturalization referrals monthly, far above the historic average of 11 per year.
The Justice Department identified about 384 foreign-born Americans for citizenship revocation and assigned the cases to prosecutors in 39 U.S. attorney offices.
Regular federal prosecutors now handle denaturalization cases amid a staffing crisis that has seen the Justice Department lose nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys.

History

Historical Context

During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 authorized the Department of Justice to strip citizenship and incarcerate roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans, illustrating how wartime fear enabled mass rights removal. The 1942 revocation of over 5,000 naturalized residents under the Enemy Alien Act echoes that precedent, prompting today’s Homeland Security referrals and renewed due-process debates.

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Story summary

The administration ordered the Department of Homeland Security to forward up to 200 denaturalization referrals monthly, far above the historic average of 11 per year.
The Justice Department identified about 384 foreign-born Americans for citizenship revocation and assigned the cases to prosecutors in 39 U.S. attorney offices.
Regular federal prosecutors now handle denaturalization cases amid a staffing crisis that has seen the Justice Department lose nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys.

1 / 2