Months after suggesting he would denaturalize U.S. citizens if he had the authority to do so, President Donald Trump appears to be moving toward that goal as part of his broader immigration crackdown.
According to a Border Report investigation, the number of denaturalization cases has risen sharply under Trump's second administration. A report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that, since May, the administration has filed 33 denaturalization complaints against people who had previously obtained U.S. citizenship, 15 in May and 18 so far in June.
That two-month tally alone outstrips the eight civil denaturalization suits filed across the whole of 2025, a jump of more than 300% — though that comparison sets a partial 2026 period against a full prior year.
Discussing the possibility of revoking U.S. citizenship at the end of 2026, Trump said he was unsure whether he had the authority to do so but added, "I would denaturalize, absolutely," while blaming the previous administration for an increase in new citizens.
"We have criminals that came into our country and they were naturalized maybe through [President Joe] Biden or somebody that didn't know what they were doing," Trump said in December.
The Border Report investigation found that the government handled a total of 166 denaturalization cases from 2008 through 2026, averaging fewer than one case per month.
Traditionally, grounds for pursuing denaturalization lawsuits have included convictions for serious crimes and falsifying federal records. But under Trump's second administration, offenses such as speeding, walking a dog without a leash or fishing without a license have been enough for the government to initiate civil denaturalization complaints in federal court, according to the TRAC report cited by Border Report.
"Thus, the specific grounds used in filing denaturalization suits bear careful watching," the document states.
The Justice Department casts the campaign as fraud enforcement. A senior official told CNN the effort is aimed at people who committed serious fraud against the United States rather than those with minor infractions like parking tickets, and the department has signaled plans to file at least 250 cases in the 2026 fiscal year. By the DOJ's own count, it has lodged 52 civil complaints since Trump returned to office, compared with 24 over Biden's four years as per ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security is also proposing to increase by roughly three-quarters the citizenship application and court fees, increasing the cost from $830 to $1,475, according to a Federal Register document published this week.
"DHS no longer believes naturalization benefit requests should get lower fees at the potential expense of other immigration benefits," the document states.
"The near doubling of fees required for this administrative process creates yet one more undue hurdle that burdens those who only want to be recognized in the last step of their American Dream," Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told Border Report.
