DOJ deploys tactic to strip naturalized Americans of citizenship

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors moved to strip citizenship from 25 naturalized Americans, accusing them of lying about their pasts and hiding serious crimes. It's called denaturalization and the Justice Department now calls it one of its top priorities. Justice correspondent Ali Rogin looks at what’s behind this dramatic shift in law enforcement strategy.

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Earlier this month, federal prosecutors moved to strip citizenship from 25 naturalized Americans, accusing them of lying about their pasts and hiding serious crimes. It's called denaturalization, and the Justice Department now calls it one of its top priorities.

Justice correspondent Ali Rogin looks at what's behind this dramatic shift in law enforcement strategy.

Since President Trump returned to office, the Justice Department has filed more denaturalization complaints than the Biden administration did during its entire four years.

To help us understand why they're using this tool more, I'm joined by Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.

I first want to ask you, how does the Trump administration's use of this tool differ from what we have seen from previous administrations over the past few decades?

Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University: Yes, I think that the Trump administration's use of denaturalization differs in a couple big ways.

One of those is that the Trump administration is just filing many, many more cases. Another way that they are differing from previous administrations is that these statements put out by the Trump administration seem to suggest that denaturalization is an end goal all by itself and that it's in fact part of the administration's immigration priorities.

And then the third way that the administration has used it differently is that the administration has used denaturalization as a political tool. So the administration has talked very specifically about pursuing denaturalization against individuals that have made statements that perhaps angered the government.

And you mentioned how this administration is using denaturalization as an end goal in and of itself. How does that differ from what used to be done? What sort of cases might be subject to denaturalization?

So, in the modern era, denaturalization has been incredibly rare, less than 10 cases a year, on average.

And, generally, the cases that we have seen have been cases involving issues of national security. So, for example, we saw denaturalization cases against former Nazi concentration camp guards. And we saw a few denaturalization cases brought as part of the war on terror, trying to focus in on national security interests.

And, in your review of these cases, do any of them strike you as ones prior administrations would have also sought denaturalization for?