The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has directed immigration authorities to identify between 100 and 200 potential denaturalisation cases each month, signalling a renewed push to tighten oversight of U.S. citizenship approvals.
According to a report by NBC News, cited by the Economic Times on Friday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has reassigned personnel and deployed specialists to field offices nationwide to scrutinise previously approved naturalisation cases.
The objective, the report said, is to provide the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation with a consistent pipeline of cases for potential legal action.
USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said the agency would move against individuals where there is evidence of fraud or misrepresentation during the naturalisation process.
“We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud in the naturalisation process and will pursue denaturalisation proceedings for any individual who lied or misrepresented themselves,” NBC quoted him as saying.
“We will continue to relentlessly pursue those undermining the integrity of America’s immigration system and work alongside the Department of Justice to ensure that only those who meet citizenship standards retain the privilege of US citizenship,” he added.
The United States Department of Justice has instructed its attorneys to prioritise denaturalisation cases. Officials have pointed to cases involving alleged national security threats, war crimes, as well as Medicaid and Medicare fraud.
A broader provision also permits action in “any other cases … that the division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue,” the Justice Department stated.
Trump has consistently placed citizenship policy at the centre of his immigration agenda. He is currently seeking authority to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to foreign nationals ,a matter now before the Supreme Court of the United States.
In a Thanksgiving message last year, Trump wrote that he would remove anyone who was not a “net asset” to the US and would “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.”
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