Overview

• The June 11 memo from Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate elevates civil denaturalization to a top Civil Division priority and orders attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue” revocation proceedings
• It specifies ten priority categories—including war crimes, human rights abuses, terrorism, organized crime and financial fraud—but retains discretion to pursue cases beyond those groups
• Civil denaturalization cases deny respondents the right to counsel and apply a “clear and convincing” evidence standard, bypassing criminal safeguards and speeding up proceedings
• On June 13, a federal judge revoked the U.S. citizenship of Elliott Duke, a UK-born veteran convicted of distributing child sexual abuse material, marking the first enforcement under the new policy
• Legal scholars warn that vague criteria and sweeping prosecutorial discretion could lead to arbitrary denaturalization of as many as 25 million naturalized U.S. citizens