Starting last month, the Trump Administration dramatically increased the number of denaturalisation complaints it filed against individuals seeking to revoke their US citizenship. While historically the number of denaturalisation civil lawsuits the federal government brought averaged less than 1 each month (or just 0.6), at least 15 complaints for denaturalisation were filed in May 2026, and 18 have already been filed in the first part of June 2026. Throughout 2025, the Trump administration filed only eight such suits.denaturalisation civil lawsuits the federal government brought averaged less than 1 per month (or just 0.6), at least 15 denaturalisation complaints were filed in May 2026,
TRAC’s latest report contains an in-depth review of the denaturalisation complaints TRAC painstakingly compiled of individuals subject to these civil denaturalization proceedings. A total of 166 denaturalization complaints were identified and reviewed. These cover proceedings the federal government has filed since January 2008.
The cause of action the government asserted in denaturalization complaints has varied considerably over this period. Proceedings were based on several different prior criminal convictions as well as identity fraud to obtain naturalization in the first instance. Immigration fraud, specifically identity fraud, was the largest single underlying basis for denaturalization complaints historically and remained so for May and June 2026.
Current denaturalization efforts are rooted in a historical initiative referred to as “Operation Janus,” established by the Obama Administration in 2010. To support an ongoing review of naturalized cases where the digitized fingerprint record was unavailable at the time of naturalization, Congress authorized $5 million to digitize these records as part of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-led initiative. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) supported ICE in this initiative by establishing a specialized unit in the Los Angeles Field Office referred to as the Field Office Directorate (FOD) Historical Fingerprint Enrollment (HFE) Unit to review instances where after the fingerprint records were digitized, duplicate identities were found for the same individual who had naturalized. This initiative largely ceased, however, after approximately 167,000 records were digitized and funding to digitize the fingerprint records ran out.
Beginning in June 2025, the second Trump Administration reinstituted denaturalization efforts by resuming the digitization of fingerprint records and identifying expansive categories of civil enforcement priorities. While the May and June 2026 civil denaturalization complaints appear to be warranted, concerns are growing that less serious criminal, or even non-criminal conduct, may soon form the basis for civil denaturalization complaints and may deter even bona fide applicants from filing for naturalization.
The full report provides extensive additional details by time period, by the grounds used in denaturalization suits, the causes of action, as well as the underlying specifics of the criminal convictions these suits were based on.