After The New York Times reported that the administration had identified 384 foreign-born Americans as targets for denaturalization, Fox News host Will Cain asked Vice President JD Vance in an interview, “Could the law lead you to a place where we’d see accountability in the form of denaturalization or deportation from people who come to this country, legally or illegally, and take advantage of America?” Vance responded that the administration would “absolutely” be looking at how to denaturalize citizens and claimed that under the Biden administration there was a “big blurring of the lines between illegal and legal immigration.”

According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, denaturalization has historically been rare. It is typically only used in cases in which there is proof that a person was naturalized when they were not eligible, for example if a person misrepresented or concealed information during the naturalization process that would disqualify them from U.S. citizenship.

But in June 2025, the Trump Department of Justice released a policy memo expanding the administration’s “priorities for denaturalization.” The memo not only outlines new categories of immigrants who could be prioritized for denaturalization, but specifically warns that “the Civil Division retains the discretion to pursue cases outside of these categories as it determines appropriate.”