US Shifts Immigration Lawyers to DOJ to Speed Citizenship Crackdown on Naturalized Americans
Updated
Updated · Reuters · May 22
US Shifts Immigration Lawyers to DOJ to Speed Citizenship Crackdown on Naturalized Americans
5 articles · Updated · Reuters · May 22
The Trump administration is temporarily reassigning immigration lawyers to the Justice Department to accelerate efforts to revoke citizenship from some naturalized Americans, according to an Axios report published Friday.
The move is aimed at speeding denaturalization cases, shifting legal staff toward a priority enforcement effort rather than routine immigration work.
Reuters said it could not immediately verify the Axios report, leaving the scale, duration and number of lawyers involved unclear.
How will this denaturalization push affect the security of millions of law-abiding naturalized citizens?
Where is the legal line between a simple application mistake and fraud that could revoke citizenship?
What new technology is being used to find errors in decades-old citizenship applications?
Denaturalization Surge: Trump’s 2026 Policy Puts 25 Million Naturalized Citizens at Risk of Citizenship Loss
Overview
As of May 22, 2026, the Trump administration dramatically escalated efforts to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Americans, making denaturalization a central part of federal enforcement. This sweeping campaign, led by USCIS’s declared 'war on fraud,' targets individuals believed to have unlawfully obtained citizenship, especially those naturalized under previous administrations. The Department of Justice became 'laser focused' on prosecuting so-called 'criminal aliens' accused of defrauding the naturalization process. These actions mark a significant shift, expanding scrutiny of the naturalization process itself and making denaturalization far more visible and consequential than in previous years.