USCIS denaturalization push under Trump
The part that stands out from Joseph Edlow's comments is how many old files USCIS is now willing to pull back open. Fraud cases from naturalization are getting routed to the Department of Justice, and from there they head into federal court. Edlow said he's proud of the denaturalization work, and he was blunt about it: if you committed fraud to get your citizenship, you are not safe, they will find you and bring charges. The law here isn't new. Conceal a crime or run a fabricated story through your application and revocation was always possible. What changed is the appetite. Filings are way up this year, an August count had 123 civil cases filed since January 2025. A judge has to approve any revocation, even when the application involved deception. As seen on NEWSMAX under the Trump administration
Transcript (en)
I'm exceedingly proud of what we're doing in the denaturalization space. We are going back and looking at cases that years ago had we had started going through this process to find people that had wrongly and fraudulently claimed things in their asylum. And excuse me, in their naturalization applications. We are now, with the support of the Department of Justice, actually bringing those cases to federal judges and getting people removed, getting people denaturalized so that they cannot continue this travesty of justice. Frankly, I want people to understand that if you've committed fraud in this process, and I don't care where you are, you could be a naturalized U.S. citizen. But if you committed fraud in getting that naturalization, you are not safe and we will find you and we will bring charges against you.
