The Trump administration is moving to dramatically expand the use of denaturalization, directing immigration officials to feed the Justice Department a steady pipeline of cases aimed at stripping U.S. citizenship from certain foreign-born Americans.

Internal guidance to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services instructs the agency to supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month. To meet that target, USCIS has begun combing through old naturalization files, dispatching specialists to field offices across the country and reassigning staff to identify cases where officials believe citizenship may have been obtained improperly.

Denaturalization has historically been a rare and extraordinary step. Research by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that from 1990 through 2017, the government brought an average of just 11 such cases per year, typically involving serious fraud, war crimes, or undisclosed criminal histories. Under U.S. law, citizenship can generally be revoked only when it was procured through fraud, willful misrepresentation, or concealment of a material fact.

USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said the new push is aimed squarely at fraud, framing the effort as a necessary defense of the immigration system’s integrity. He said the agency maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward deception in the naturalization process and will pursue denaturalization against anyone found to have lied or misrepresented themselves, working closely with the Department of Justice. He has previously described the initiative as part of a broader “war on fraud.”

The stakes are significant. Roughly 26 million naturalized citizens live in the United States, and more than 7.9 million people have taken the oath of citizenship over the past decade. A Justice Department memorandum states that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi intend to prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization in all cases permitted by law and supported by evidence, including those involving alleged national security risks or “material misrepresentations.”

Immigration lawyers and civil rights advocates warn that the new monthly targets and expansive language could transform denaturalization from a narrowly used legal tool into a routine enforcement mechanism. They argue that the prospect of large-scale file reviews and aggressive litigation may inject uncertainty into what has long been considered the most secure status in the U.S. immigration system: citizenship itself.