Overview

• A June 11 DOJ Civil Division memo instructs attorneys to pursue denaturalization “in all cases permitted by law,” extending scrutiny to naturalized citizens deemed national security threats.
• The expansion revives a Cold War-era McCarthy statute once used against former Nazis and limited since the Supreme Court’s 1967 Afroyim v. Rusk ruling to cases of fraud or concealment.
• Five denaturalization cases have been filed in the first five months of President Trump’s second term, compared with 102 during his first administration and 24 under President Biden.
• President Trump has publicly suggested reviewing citizenship revocations for critics such as Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani, and Republican Rep. Andy Ogles urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani.
• Civil rights advocates and law professors warn that the broad criteria and politicized targeting could undermine due process and chill free speech.