Justice Department Memo Directs Lawyers to Prioritize Stripping Citizenship From Naturalized Americans

In a June 11, 2025 memorandum setting out Civil Division enforcement priorities, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate directed department lawyers to 'maximally pursue' civil denaturalization cases. The memo lists categories for prioritization, including naturalized citizens convicted of national-security offenses and of fraud against individuals or government programs such as PPP loans and Medicare or Medicaid billing, and states that the enumerated categories 'do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case.'

Civil denaturalization proceeds without the safeguards attached to criminal denaturalization prosecutions. Legal scholars interviewed by NPR noted that defendants in civil cases have no right to appointed counsel and that the proceedings move faster, and one argued the approach raises Fourteenth Amendment problems. A Heritage Foundation analyst countered that defendants may retain their own lawyers and that civil immigration proceedings have never guaranteed appointed counsel. Others noted the breadth of the discretionary language, which could reach conduct unrelated to how citizenship was obtained.

The memo is internal guidance and does not itself revoke anyone's citizenship; each case must still be proved in federal court. Reporting on its scope drew wide attention at the end of June 2025.