DOJ Targets Passports — 250 Cases Coming

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building entrance flags

Trump’s latest citizenship crackdown shows how fast Washington can turn a rare legal tool into a mass enforcement weapon.

Quick Take

The Justice Department plans at least 250 denaturalization cases in fiscal year 2026.
Officials say the push targets fraud, concealment, and other lawful grounds for revocation.
Critics warn the broader campaign could chill legal immigrants and expand government power.
Public reporting says immigration lawyers are being reassigned to speed the effort.

Justice Department Widens Citizenship Revocation Effort

The Trump administration is moving aggressively to expand denaturalization cases, the process used to strip citizenship from some naturalized Americans. Federal reporting says the Justice Department expects to seek more than 250 cases by the end of fiscal year 2026, a sharp rise from historic norms.^[1] The department says the cases focus on people who allegedly obtained citizenship through fraud, illegal procurement, or concealment of material facts.^[8]

The policy is framed as an effort to protect the integrity of naturalization. A Justice Department civil memorandum says the Civil Division must “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings” in cases permitted by law and backed by evidence.^[8] Supporters see that as basic rule enforcement. But the scale matters. When a tool once used sparingly becomes a priority case factory, citizens start to worry about how far the government intends to go.

How Fast the Caseload Is Growing

Several reports show the pace rising fast. Axios reported that the administration was temporarily reassigning immigration attorneys to the Justice Department so denaturalization cases could move faster, while CBS News said several dozen cases had already been filed in recent weeks.^[2]^[1] TRAC Reports found at least 15 complaints in May 2026 and 18 more in the first part of June, after years when civil denaturalization averaged less than one case per month.^[4] That is a major shift in both volume and ambition.

The government’s list of priorities is also broader than older fraud-only cases. Recent guidance includes national security, terrorism, espionage, gang ties, drug cartels, human trafficking, sex offenses, violent crimes, and financial fraud.^[8]^[20] NPR reported that most publicly disclosed cases still involve serious conduct such as fraud, child sexual abuse, terrorism-related activity, war crimes, or drug trafficking.^[6] That supports the claim that the department is not randomly targeting people, but it also shows the campaign is casting a wide net.

Legal Limits Still Matter

The law does not give the government a free hand. The Justice Department can seek revocation only in limited situations, and the burden of proof remains high.^[8]^[14] The Brennan Center says Supreme Court precedent allows denaturalization only when citizenship was unlawfully procured and when the unlawful act had a real connection to the grant of citizenship.^[11] In plain English, the government must prove more than dislike, suspicion, or a minor mistake on a form.

That legal limit is the key point conservatives should watch. A secure nation has the right to remove citizenship obtained by fraud, especially when a person lied about serious crimes or threats to public safety. But the same government that cannot control the border, fix inflation, or clean up its own bureaucracy should not use citizenship power casually. If this effort stays tied to fraud and serious criminal conduct, it fits the rule of law. If it spreads beyond that, it becomes a much bigger problem.

Why This Matters Beyond Immigration Court

Immigration groups and legal advocates argue the expansion could still create fear among millions of naturalized Americans. The American Immigration Lawyers Association says the administration has made denaturalization a top enforcement priority and has expanded criteria in ways that raise civil liberties concerns.^[10]^[23] The National Immigration Forum also notes that there are about 24.5 million naturalized Americans in the United States, which is why even a small number of cases can have a large chilling effect.^[1] That concern is about reach, not just raw case counts.

For Trump supporters, the appeal is easy to understand. Fraud should carry consequences, and citizenship should mean something. For skeptics, the fear is that a narrow legal remedy could become another broad federal pressure campaign. The facts now available show both realities at once: the administration has a lawful basis to act, but it is also pushing that power harder than recent administrations did.^[8]^[4]^[6]