Naturalised Americans — including thousands of Indian-origin citizens — could face a tougher scrutiny of their citizenship status as the Trump administration sharpens its immigration enforcement agenda, with a renewed focus on de-naturalisation.
According to internal instructions accessed by The New York Times, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field offices have been directed to identify and forward 100–200 de-naturalisation cases every month to the Office of Immigration Litigation during the 2026 fiscal year. This marks a sharp escalation: between 2017 and 2025, the Justice Department filed just over 120 such cases in total.
The US is home to around 26 million naturalised citizens, with more than 8,00,000 people taking the oath of citizenship last year alone. The largest groups of new citizens came from Mexico, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Vietnam. In most de-naturalisation cases, individuals who lose citizenship revert to legal permanent resident (green card) status.
Under US federal law, citizenship can be revoked mainly if it was obtained through fraud, concealment of material facts or wilful misrepresentation during the naturalisation process. De-naturalisation can also apply in rare cases linked to national security or serious criminal conduct.
While these legal provisions are not new, the Trump administration has signalled a far more aggressive use of existing powers, targeting both illegal immigration and perceived abuse of legal pathways.
Officially, the administration’s stated focus is on naturalised citizens convicted of serious crimes. However, immigration lawyers and civil rights groups warn that the scope could widen. Past cases suggest that issues such as false statements on immigration forms or misrepresentation in tax filings could also be used to initiate civil de-naturalisation proceedings.
Unlike criminal cases, de-naturalisation actions are civil in nature. The government must prove that the person intentionally concealed or misrepresented facts that would have disqualified them from citizenship. A court order is mandatory, and individuals are entitled to due process.
Historically, denaturalisation has been used sparingly — most notably against war criminals or individuals deemed threats to national security. The current push signals a clear policy shift, creating anxiety among immigrant communities who believed citizenship offered permanent legal certainty.
For green card holders who later became US citizens, the message is unambiguous: naturalisation is no longer seen as the end of immigration scrutiny under Trump’s hardline approach.