President-elect Donald Trump appears to be planning to continue campaigning.promiseHe claims that “poison the bloodof our country. by at least oneestimateAchieving President Trump's grand ambitions will be virtually impossible, both logistically and financially, but that won't prevent him from destroying countless lives while trying.
One smaller effort, but potentially devastating in its impact, would target naturalized immigrants to the United States.
President Trump has nominated three deportation hawks to key positions in his administration, including Stephen Miller as chief of staff, Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security, and Tom Homan as “border czar.”
Mr. Miller is likely to be particularly influential and particularly cruel.
“America belongs only to Americans,” he said. shoutedAt President Trump's Madison Square Garden campaign rally. In an interview before the election, he said: outlinedThe plan is to mobilize the National Guard, state police, local police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and even the U.S. military to round up illegal immigrants and hold them in tent camps until they are deported. .
But even “documented” immigrants are not safe. Because Mr. Miller has vowed to move forward with a rare “denaturalization” process to go after people who have been citizens for years or even decades based on allegations of naturalization fraud. It is. application. Individuals stripped of their citizenship will be subject to deportation along with Miller's other targets.
Of course, not all discrepancies and discrepancies are evidence of fraud, so some legitimate citizens, or those who have committed fraud, A small mistake based on confusionyou may be involved in an excessive investigation.
The process of revoking naturalization was created by laws and regulationsIn 1906, it provided that citizenship could be revoked if it was acquired through false statements or fraudulent omissions. It was used inconsistently in the 20th century. periodThere was intense activity during the World Wars and the Cold War, but less frequently during less secure times.
By the early 21st century, denaturalized people were primarily accused of being terrorists, war criminals, and human rights violators who concealed their backgrounds in visa and citizenship applications. For example, during the Obama administration, Rasmea Odeconcealed his criminal record for the Israeli supermarket bombing that killed two university students.
During the first Trump administration, the Department of Justice EstablishmentThe new denaturalization effort, called “Operation Second Look,” is tasked with investigating the citizenship status of thousands of immigrants suspected of obtaining naturalization by fraud, misrepresentation, or deception.
Operation Second LookHired a number of new agents, initially more than tripling the number of active degeneration cases and promising more cases. While the Democratic administration was “focused on people who did terrible things,” Trump investigators appeared to be preparing for: chase“People who did nothing noteworthy or whose mistakes caused no harm.”
In 2017, the Supreme Court limited the government's power to revoke citizenship. held unanimously Naturalization can only be revoked in cases of “material” false statements, meaning lies or intentional omissions that would prevent naturalization in the first place.
But importance is in the eye of the beholder. In this case, Stephen Miller declares that he will bring back “.with turbochargerOperation Second Look in 2025 is consistent with his intention to strip citizenship from as many immigrants as possible as a prelude to deportation.
Mr. Miller's relentless campaign of denaturalization could have extreme consequences, and not just for immigrants whose citizenship rights, rightly or wrongly, have been violated or revoked. Even those who successfully lose their degenerative cases will likely be under a great deal of stress.
as a journalist M. Gessen explainedA massive search for invalid naturalization applications could “remove the assumption of permanence” and turn millions of naturalized citizens into second-class citizens.
Worse still, thousands of immigrants who were naturalized as minors at the request of their parents could be stripped of their citizenship through no fault of their own. Perhaps worse, many American-born children may question their citizenship if their parents are denaturalized. President Trump's pledgeAbolishing birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.
Fortunately, denaturalization is a judicial proceeding and you have a right to be tried in federal court. Unfortunately, in degenerative cases there is no right to a lawyer, so all defendants are also responsible for the cost of hiring a lawyer.
For many people who do not have the funds to hire a lawyer, the following options are available: big chanceLosing citizenship through mistake or default may be exactly what Stephen Miller has in mind.
Stephen Lubet is Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He is the author of “The Trial of Rasmair Odeh: How Palestinian Guerillas Gained and Lost U.S. Citizenship.”
