Overview

• The June 11 memo from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate makes denaturalization one of the Civil Division’s top five enforcement priorities.
• Priority targets include naturalized citizens accused of war crimes, human rights abuses, terrorism, gang involvement or misrepresentation, with prosecutors free to pursue cases beyond those categories.
• Civil proceedings under the directive deny respondents appointed counsel and impose a lower burden of proof than in criminal trials.
• On June 13, a federal judge revoked UK-born veteran Elliott Duke’s citizenship in the first enforcement of the new civil denaturalization process.
• Advocacy groups and federal courts are preparing constitutional challenges over due process concerns as the Civil Division prepares additional denaturalization actions.