In any transaction, there are only three options: if a transaction is carried out by force, it is theft. If it is carried out by deceit, it is fraud. Only an open and honest transaction between parties who agree on the terms is legally and morally acceptable.
Conferring citizenship on an immigrant is a transaction. The person who gains U.S. citizenship becomes a full member of American society, a citizen of the greatest nation on the planet. The United States gains a productive, honest, loyal citizen.
Or, at least, that's how it should work. There are, in citizenship transactions, like any other, those who seek to gain citizenship by fraud. Now the Trump administration is devoting resources to finding these people, revoking their citizenship, and applying a metaphorical 11EE boot to their backsides to loft them back to their country of origin.
The Trump administration reportedly plans to increase efforts to denaturalize foreign-born Americans who committed fraud while applying for citizenship.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has directed its field offices to supply the Justice Department's Office of Immigration Litigation with 100 to 200 potential denaturalization cases per month in fiscal year 2026, according to internal guidance obtained by The New York Times.
That's a good thing. Anyone who obtained residency or citizenship by fraud, even if that person is someone of high profile, say, a sitting Congresswoman from Minneapolis, should be stripped of that citizenship and repatriated. Although, sadly, these kinds of crackdowns never seem to include people like this. They should, but they don't, and that's a fact, unpleasant one though it may be.
Read More: Trump's Overhaul of Immigration May Extend to Revoking Citizenship for Bad Behavior
Even so, the Trump administration's effort represents a significant uptick in the number of such cases presented. We can certainly start at the bottom with this.
If fully implemented, that would mark a dramatic escalation compared with recent years. The Justice Department has filed just over 120 such cases combined from 2017 through this year, the Times reported.
USCIS has been sending experts to field offices nationwide and reassigning staff to identify cases in which citizenship may have been obtained through fraud or misrepresentation, NBC News reported.
The goal, sources told NBC, is to significantly increase referrals to DOJ attorneys, who must ultimately prove their case in federal court.
Under federal law, denaturalization is permitted only in narrow circumstances, primarily when an individual concealed material facts or committed fraud in the naturalization process.
Here's the catch: There were about 800,000 new citizens sworn in last year. There are about 26 million naturalized citizens in the United States.
That's as may be, but it doesn't make this undertaking any less important. Sure, it's a daunting task. But the law is the law. It seems likely that most of the people being investigated will either be from a country of concern (Somalia) or have some ties to a known terrorist group - like the ongoing DHS/ICE deportation efforts, this program should concentrate on known bad actors first.
Citizenship in the United States of America is a gift beyond measure for anyone, anywhere on the planet. We should be judicious as to who we give it to, and if anyone is found to have gained that citizenship through fraud, they should be sent packing. But for people who come here who want to work, to earn, to build, to grow, to become Americans, we should likewise welcome those people.
Promote enterprise and honesty. Have no truck with liars and frauds. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Editor’s Note: ICE and CBP continue to put themselves in harm's way in order to protect America’s sovereignty and to keep our streets safe.
Help us continue to report the truth about the DHS’s efforts to clean up America by joining RedState VIP and using promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member