Overview

• A June 11 memo from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate directs the Civil Division to prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings against naturalized citizens suspected of fraud, national security threats or other serious offenses.
• The directive outlines ten priority categories—from terrorism and war crimes to human trafficking and financial fraud—while granting prosecutors discretion to pursue additional cases beyond those lists.
• By treating denaturalization as a civil action, the government operates under a lower clear-and-convincing evidence standard and individuals lose the right to court-appointed counsel.
• On June 13, a federal judge revoked the citizenship of Elliott Duke, a British-born veteran convicted of distributing child sexual abuse material, marking the first case under the new policy.
• Immigration legal organizations have filed challenges arguing that the memo’s expansive reach and vague criteria risk arbitrary enforcement and could unsettle roughly 25 million naturalized citizens.