The hottest news today is...

Open

Trump's next target for deportation plan: Naturalized U.S. citizens

11/19 20:00

It looks like President-elect Trump intends to fulfill his campaign promise and begin deporting at least 15 million people he claims have been "poisoning" the United States. At least one view is that it would be nearly impossible to pull off Trump's plan, both logistically and financially, but that won't stop him from trying.

Screenshot of The Hill report

One of the smaller but potentially disruptive initiatives would target immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens.

Trump has appointed three officials with a hard line on deportations to key White House posts, including Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security and Tom Homan as "border czar."

Miller could be particularly influential, and particularly cruel.

Even naturalized U.S. citizens are not safe

America belongs only to Americans,” he shouted at Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden. In a pre-election interview, he described a sweeping plan that would use the National Guard, state and local police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and even the U.S. military to round up undocumented immigrants and detain them in tent encampments until they could be deported.

But even “documented” immigrants are not safe, as Miller has announced that he will implement a rarely used “denaturalization” process against people who have been U.S. citizens for years or decades, based on suspicion that they committed fraud in their naturalization applications. Those stripped of their citizenship will be deported along with Miller’s other target groups.

Of course, not all discrepancies or inconsistencies are evidence of fraud, so it is inevitable that some legitimate citizens, or those who make small mistakes due to confusion, may inevitably be caught up in the mix.

In 1906, a statute provided for the revocation of citizenship if it had been obtained through false representation or fraudulent concealment. Anti-naturalization procedures were used inconsistently throughout the 20th century, being most frequently used during the world wars and the Cold War, and much less frequently in less dire times.

By the early 2000s, the revocation of U.S. citizenship was primarily aimed at terrorists, war criminals, and human rights violators who had concealed their backgrounds in their visa and citizenship applications. For example, during the Obama administration, the revocation of U.S. citizenship was successfully sought against Rasmea Odeh, who had concealed her involvement in a bombing in an Israeli supermarket that killed two college students.

During the first Trump administration, the Justice Department established a new anti-naturalization effort called Operation Secondary Review, which tasked it with investigating thousands of people suspected of having obtained citizenship through fraud. Of course, not all discrepancies or inconsistencies are evidence of fraud, so it’s inevitable that some legitimate citizens, or those who made minor mistakes due to confusion, may be caught up in the process. In 1906, a statute made it possible to revoke citizenship if it was obtained through false statements or fraudulent concealment. Anti-naturalization procedures were used inconsistently throughout the 20th century, with most frequent use during the world wars and the Cold War and far less frequent use during less dire times.

#By the early 2000s, citizenship revocation was primarily aimed at terrorists, war criminals, and human rights violators who concealed their backgrounds on their visa and citizenship applications. For example, during the Obama administration, the case against Rasmea Odeh, who concealed her role in a bombing that killed two college students in an Israeli supermarket, was successfully revoked. During the first Trump administration, the Justice Department established a new anti-naturalization effort called Operation Second Look, which tasked it with investigating the citizenship status of thousands of immigrants suspected of obtaining citizenship through fraud, misrepresentation, or deception.

Operation Second Look hired dozens of new agents and initially more than tripled the number of denaturalization cases underway, with the promise of more to come. While the Democratic administration “focuses on people who have done terrible things,” Trump’s investigators appear ready to go after “people who haven’t done anything noteworthy, or whose mistakes have caused no harm.”

In 2017, the Supreme Court limited the government's power to revoke citizenship, unanimously ruling that naturalization can be revoked only in cases of "material" misrepresentation, meaning lies or deliberate omissions of information would have prevented naturalization in the first place.

For his part, Stephen Miller’s announcement that he would restart “secondary screening operations” in 2025 is consistent with his intention to strip as many immigrants of their citizenship as possible as a prelude to deportation.

Miller’s denaturalization campaign could have extreme consequences, and not just for immigrants whose citizenship has been challenged or revoked (rightly or wrongly). Even those who win denaturalization cases could come under enormous pressure.

As journalist M. Gessen explains, a massive crackdown on invalid naturalization applications could turn millions of naturalized citizens into second-class citizens, because "they would be deprived of their right to permanent residence." Worse, hundreds of thousands of minors who were naturalized through their parents could have their citizenship revoked without any reason.

Perhaps worse, given Trump’s promise to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, many children born in the United States may find their identities called into question if their parents’ citizenship is revoked.

Fortunately, denaturalization is a judicial proceeding with the right to a trial in federal court. Unfortunately, there is no right to an appointed attorney in a denaturalization case, so each defendant will bear the cost of hiring an attorney.

For many people who don’t have the money to hire an attorney, there’s a real possibility of losing citizenship due to a wrongful or absentee trial, which is probably what Stephen Miller has in mind.#BabyMarvinf9c7值得拥🈶