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The Department of Justice has instructed lawyers to prioritize stripping of US citizenship for naturalized Americans who have committed certain crimes, according to a June 11 memo.
A memo from Attorney General Brett A. Schmate, the Civic Division, instructs the agency’s prosecutors to revoke citizenship from individuals who have been naturalized for certain violations, ranging from fraud to war crimes.
The list also includes “individuals engaged in extrajudicial killings of the Commission, or other serious human rights violations.” It is a gang member or dedicated human trafficking, sexual crimes, or other violent crimes that pose a threat to natural safety.
Frauds against individuals and businesses engaged in pay protection programs and financial fraud against the United States, including Medicaid or Medicare, are also subject to transformation. The memo also awards DOJ’s attorneys a wider range of people who lied or misrepresented about when to pursue a case against an individual “deemed important enough to pursue” and who lied or misrepresented about applying naturalization.
Joyce Vance, a former US lawyer for the Northern District of Alabama, issued a warning to the broad language of the memo.
“The provisions are so vague that the department can be changed in almost anything,” Vance argued in a blog post. “It could have been before or following naturalization. Given the other priorities discussed in the memo, it could have exercised First Amendment rights, encouraged employment diversity, and now recast as a scam against the US. People who have no legitimate procedures and deal with questions that come up after the fact, in a lightly missively humiliating tone.”
The memo notes that if the individual is not found guilty of “pending criminal charges,” the individual can refer them for “degeneration.”
Rekha Sharma Crawford, vice president of the American Association of Immigration Barriers, said it is important to keep in mind that the government has a burden of proof during the transformation proceedings. It is not clear how the administration plans lawsuits based on alteration using mere accusations, but the law recognizes only four very specific categories.
“Fortunately, these are issues that must be brought to federal district courts, with strict rules of evidence and procedures — not only are they in front of agencies where there are likely far fewer procedural protections, but they are not just in front of protection,” Sharma Crawford told NBC.
Still, some fear that the memo will raise a prospect of abuse. Christopher Wellborn, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Bars, worries that “any crime could be used at any time to justify alteration.”
“It’s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which the government evokes baseless claims of gang affiliation or a scenario in which citizenship was illegally procured using an individual’s criminal history,” Wellborn said in a statement.
A Justice Department spokesman said he was “committed to maintaining the integrity of the naturalization program,” defending the memo in an email to NBC.
“The alteration procedure is pursued as permitted by law and is endorsed by evidence against individuals who have illegally procured or misrepresented the facts during the naturalization process,” the statement reads. “This Department of Justice is committed to maintaining the integrity of its naturalization program.
“People who gain citizenship through illegal means and endanger our national security will not maintain the benefits of being American citizens.”
Two experts explain the origins of birthright citizenship and what it takes to change it in the United States.
This move comes as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration and takes steps to reduce legal immigration to the United States, including limiting birthright citizenship and expanding refugee programs.
“Their desire to target immigrant communities at every cost is damaging the country’s long history of being the country’s most important fundamental ideals of the pursuit of life, freedom and happiness,” said Sharma Crawford.
Over 7.9 million people have become naturalized US citizens over the past decade, including 818,500 new citizens last year.
Immigrants who become US citizens can vote, serve ju-degrees and obtain security clearance.
The degeneration – the process of depriving naturalized citizens of citizenship – is extremely rare. For years, government transformation efforts have focused primarily on immigration documents, particularly suspect war criminals who lied to former Nazis.
Between 1990 and 2017, the Department of Justice submitted a total of over 300 degenerative cases, with an average of 11 cases per year. But in 2017, the first year of Trump’s first term, that number went to 25. In 2018, USCIS announced that it would introduce approximately 1,600 lawsuits to the Department of Justice.
Critics of Trump’s immigration policy are concerned that the administration is using immigration enforcement to chase people for their speeches. Last week, R-Tenn. Rep. Andy Ogles has written to Attorney General Pam Bondy, who calls on the Department of Justice to launch a transformational lawsuit against New York City’s Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018.
At a press conference in Florida on Tuesday, Trump called the 33-year-old a “communist” and claimed “people say he’s here illegally.” Trump said his administration is “trying to see everything,” and arrested him if Mamdani followed a campaign promise to “stop masked ice agents from banishing our neighbors.”
Mamdani condemned the president’s comments in a statement, saying it was “threatening.”
“His statement represents not only an attack on our democracy, but an attempt to send a message to all New Yorkers who refuse to hide in the shadows.
Sharma-Crawford said the Trump administration may try to take a “everything and kitchen sink” approach to immigration enforcement, but the law prevents such abuse, especially when targeting long-term citizens with clean records.
“The process of transformation for good reason is rooted in the law, but there is also caution to using it as a weapon,” Sharma Claudeford said. “This memorandum is very similar to other actions by this administration and is intended to inspire fear and uncertainty in the American community. By using overbroad and ambiguous language, the memorandum opens up many questions and makes the memorandum a fuel to light the fire due to panic and alarms.”
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