U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has directed its field offices to refer 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month to the Department of Justice during fiscal year 2026, according to internal guidance published by The New York Times on December 17, 2025. The fiscal year began in October 2025.

The monthly target would represent a sharp escalation. Between 2017 and late 2025, the Justice Department filed just over 120 denaturalization cases in total. A 12-month run at the low end of the new goal would multiply that figure by roughly ten.

What does the guidance change?

The instruction appeared in a USCIS priorities document for fiscal year 2026, alongside administrative items such as "provide employee feedback opportunities" and "strengthen management of high-risk cases." Field offices must now supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with the specified case volume each month.

USCIS refers cases to the Justice Department, which must then bring denaturalization proceedings in federal court. The process can move forward as a civil or a criminal matter.

Who can be denaturalized?

Federal law limits revocations to people who committed fraud in applying for citizenship or to a narrow set of other circumstances. In June 2025, the Justice Department circulated a memo instructing its civil division to "prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence." Listed categories include:

• Gang members
• Perpetrators of financial fraud
• Individuals connected to drug cartels
• Violent criminals

How rare are denaturalizations?

Denaturalization cases have been uncommon since the 1990s. A Bloomberg Law analysis found filings peaked in 2018, when 90 civil and criminal cases were filed in a single year. The first Trump administration referred more than 100 cases to courts; the Biden administration referred 24. As of December 2025, the Justice Department had filed 13 denaturalization cases this year and won 8, according to agency spokesman Chad Gilmartin.

A 2017 Supreme Court ruling requires the government to prove not only that an applicant misstated information but that the misrepresentation affected the underlying citizenship decision.

What do officials say?

A USCIS spokesman framed the new focus as a fraud crackdown.

"It's no secret that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' war on fraud includes prioritizing those who've unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship — especially under the previous administration," Matthew J. Tragesser, a USCIS spokesman, told The New York Times. "We will pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process."

Former USCIS officials pushed back on the numerical quotas.

"Imposing arbitrary numerical targets on denaturalization cases risks politicizing citizenship revocation," said Sarah Pierce, a former USCIS official. "Requiring monthly quotas that are 10 times higher than the total annual number of denaturalizations in recent years turns a serious and rare tool into a blunt instrument and fuels unnecessary fear and uncertainty for the millions of naturalized Americans."

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, took the opposite view. "I don't think we're anywhere close to denaturalizing too many people," he said.

How many naturalized Americans live in the United States?

• About 26 million, according to the Census Bureau
• More than 800,000 were sworn in during fiscal year 2024
• Top countries of birth for new citizens: Mexico, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam

Most people stripped of citizenship revert to legal permanent resident status.

What happens next?

The Justice Department must still prove denaturalization claims through federal court. Amanda Baran, a former senior USCIS official in the Biden administration, argued the legal bar remains high.

"The Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that citizenship and naturalization are too precious and fundamental to our democracy for the government to take it away on their whim," Baran said. "Instead of wasting resources digging through Americans' files, USCIS should do its job of processing applications, as Congress mandated."

Margy O'Herron, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, warned that numerical targets could sweep up the wrong people.

"My fear would be that, as we have seen in the arrest and removal context when DHS employees are given arbitrary targets, what happens is people who shouldn't be swept up get swept up," O'Herron said. "That could incite fear and terror amongst naturalized citizens."

USCIS and the Justice Department are the official sources for the new guidance and the underlying case statistics.