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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump has said his administration plans to revoke the citizenship of naturalized immigrants who are convicted of defrauding Americans—but legal experts say doing so isn’t straightforward and the law restricts when citizenship can be taken away.
"We're also going to revoke the citizenship of any naturalized immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens," Trump said during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club last week.
Irina Manta, professor of law at Hofstra University who studies denaturalization, told Newsweek that Trump’s comment is "ambiguous because it is not the case that all fraud can lead to denaturalization."
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A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told Newsweek that the department is "laser focused on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse" and said it would pursue denaturalization proceedings "against any individual who illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process."
The White House declined to comment.
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Why It Matters
The comments underscore the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda.
Trump has targeted the Somali community in Minnesota, launching an immigration crackdown in the state in response to a series of fraud cases involving government programs. Many but not all of the defendants in those cases are of Somali descent and most are U.S. citizens.
Late last year, he labelled Somalis "garbage" and said he didn’t want them in the United States.
The U.S. government can strip a naturalized immigrant of their citizenship if they are criminally convicted of naturalization fraud or if the government proves through civil proceedings that they illegally obtained their citizenship through fraud or misrepresented or concealed facts on their application.
But for years, the government’s naturalization efforts focused largely on suspected war criminals who lied on immigration paperwork, most notably former Nazis.
What To Know
Under U.S. law, the Department of Justice has two legal paths to strip U.S. citizenship: by filing criminal charges for naturalization fraud or by bringing a civil lawsuit.
In a criminal case, the government has to provide "beyond a reasonable doubt" that an applicant made a false statement in a citizenship application and that the statement would have affected the application.
Manta noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Maslenjak v. United States set a particularly high bar for criminal cases. In that decision, the court limited the government’s ability to strip U.S. citizenship from immigrants for lying during the naturalization process, with Justice Elena Kagan writing for the court that allowing the government to strip citizenship for minor lies would give prosecutors "nearly limitless leverage—and afford newly naturalized Americans precious little security."
The court "specifically rejected the idea that any minor lie could support denaturalization," Manta said.
And even in a civil case, the government has to present "clear and convincing evidence" that any misrepresentation on an application was "material," meaning it would have affected the decision to grant citizenship, Manta added.
Elora Mukherjee, a law professor and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Newsweek a federal judge makes the decision on whether a person can be stripped of their citizenship "after a person has a full opportunity to present their case against denaturalization."
Mukherjee and Manta also raised concerns about the constitutionality of the civil process, noting there is no statute of limitations and no right to a court-appointed lawyer.
Legal experts noted the law does not allow for citizenship to be revoked for crimes, even serious ones, committed after naturalization.
"The administration would have to prove in court that the citizen was knowingly committing fraud and was doing it before they naturalized," David Bier, director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, told Newsweek.
Michael Kagan, a professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Newsweek: "The fact that a person may have been convicted of a crime, even a serious crime, including a fraud crime, is not grounds to denaturalize someone, unless it was fraud in the citizenship application itself.
"In America, people who commit crimes can be sentenced to prison, but we do not take away citizenship."
What People Are Saying
Elora Mukherjee, a law professor and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Newsweek: "The President's claim is designed to instill fear in immigrant communities. But the law only permits denaturalizations in very limited circumstances, for example, if someone hid their ties to Nazis or terrorists or lied on their naturalization application."
David Bier, the director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, told Newsweek: "The government cannot revoke naturalization for anyone unless it proves they committed fraud to obtain it—that includes lying about past criminal conduct. The administration would have to prove in court that the citizen was knowingly committing fraud and was doing it before they naturalized."
The DOJ spokesperson told Newsweek: "The Department of Justice is laser focused on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and has already charged dozens of defendants from Minnesota who’ve defrauded the American people. These efforts will continue until all fraudsters, including refugees who are laundering American taxpayer dollars, are brought to justice.
"Denaturalization proceedings will continue to be pursued against any individual who illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process. Those who gained citizenship through unlawful means and endanger our national security will not maintain the benefits of being an American citizen."
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