Immigrant Legal Resource Center: Denaturalization and Revocation of Naturalization

This Immigrant Legal Resource Center Practice Advisory offers recent developments on Denaturalization and Revocation of Naturalization:

“The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are ramping up efforts to investigate U.S. citizens and pursue denaturalization cases. This will result in many U.S. citizens being denaturalized and losing their citizenship.  These efforts will have a chilling effect on the number of legal permanent residents applying for U.S. citizenship and will further burden a system that is already delayed in adjudicating and granting immigration benefits. This Practice Advisory reviews the present state of denaturalization and revocation of citizenship.  It thoroughly reviews the statutes and caselaw to date in denaturalization and revocation of citizenship. Practitioners handling these cases will find this Practice Advisory to be very useful when defending U.S. citizens who are under the threat of having their citizenship torn away from them.”

The introduction includes this particularly relevant passage:

“Despite the significant resources this administration is expending on these cases, in absolute terms the number of people who have had their citizenship stripped remains small so far. However, there are fears that the creation of the DOJ’s Denaturalization Section may result in many more people being denaturalized in the near future. In addition, these efforts will have a chilling effect on the number of legal permanent residents applying for U.S. citizenship12 and will further burden a system that is already delayed in adjudicating and granting immigration benefits.”

KJ