DOJ Citizenship Revocation Plans Raise Constitutional Concerns
The Justice Department issued a June 11, 2025 memo directing attorneys to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings,” sparking concerns about potential political targeting of naturalized citizens[1]. While the memo lists priorities like national security threats and criminal conduct, it includes broad language allowing cases deemed “sufficiently important to pursue”[1:1].
Legal experts warn this discretion could enable politically motivated denaturalization. “The politicization of citizenship rights is something that really worries me, I think it’s just flatly inconsistent with our democratic system,” said Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University[2].
Recent events highlight these concerns:
- The White House press secretary indicated support for investigating NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s citizenship based on rap lyrics[3]
- Trump suggested examining Elon Musk’s citizenship status after Musk criticized his spending bill[4]
- Trump threatened to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship, though this is legally impossible as she was born in the U.S.[4:1]
Constitutional scholars emphasize that denaturalization through civil proceedings “lacks many constitutional protections,” with no right to court-appointed lawyers or jury trials[4:2]. The Supreme Court previously restricted denaturalization in 1967, ruling it “inconsistent with the American form of democracy, because it creates two levels of citizenship”[1:2].
“Denaturalization is exceedingly rare and has occurred for people who concealed information of war crimes, Nazi membership, criminal histories, or immigration fraud such as using a stolen identity,” said Michelle Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute[4:3].
NPR - DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
CNN - Law used to kick out Nazis could be used to strip citizenship from many more Americans ↩︎
MSNBC - Trump’s DOJ issues memo on plan to strip citizenship ↩︎
PolitiFact - Can Donald Trump revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship? ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Elon might have actually committed immigration fraud. He admitted to working on the USA without a visa. But then again, if the system can’t do its do diligence at the time of nationalization why would it be able to later?
Rich people have never had to abide by the rules
I’m surprised Trump hasn’t used that admission to try to get rid of him already honestly. Yeah he’s got money, but with that admission I’d assume the government would just try to seize all of his assets as proceeds from that criminal act.
he does not want to create precedence for people being punished for what they say on camera.
Doing that would scare the other rich people away, and he doesn’t want that.
He continued, “Anyone who has abused the privilege of the opportunity of becoming a U.S. citizen should have that citizenship revoked when they engage in such reprehensible behavior.”
Cool. Do Trump first.
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We are rapidly approaching the end of the poem. You know the one.
nothing seems to hold sway when i comes to inconvenience for the ones that can afford change.
How many felonies does the president have?
More if Epstein documents are declassified without censorship.
The politicization of citizenship rights is something that really worries me, I think it’s just flatly inconsistent with our democratic system
Even the opponents just spew out weasel words.
I’m sorry, your country is fucked; so if y’all could try and keep that fuckery within your borders, that’d be great.
If all people which are against Trump are expulsed, the US will be a country of rednecks, to stupid to pee a hole in the snow and the running joke of the rest of the world
People thought the Nazis were a joke too. Also you’re already the running joke of the world.
Implying we’re not the joke of the world now. Bold, lol.
China would take America over in a heartbeat at that point. Just wish all the rest of us had a place to go. I gladly let them keep this shit hole. Let them have this third world shit hole.
Oh ok cool. So basically a tool for revenge. Nothing bad could come from that…
Holy guacamole! Psych, socio, and general humanities classes really need to be integrated at age-appropriate levels, in early primary education and ongoing.
Thought this was the onion
