(UNITED STATES) — The Trump administration has launched what Justice Department officials call the largest-ever denaturalization effort, targeting 17 U.S. citizens in federal court actions over alleged immigration fraud and related crimes.

Justice Department officials said the campaign seeks to revoke citizenship from naturalized Americans who concealed criminal conduct, fraud, or other disqualifying facts during the naturalization process. The latest filings span courts across the country.

Officials described the new round as the largest-ever use of denaturalization powers by the U.S. government. A prior round in May 2026 involved 12 denaturalization cases, which the department had already described as the largest such effort in years before the latest expansion.

The people named in the new cases can fight the government’s filings in court. If judges strip their citizenship, they would typically return to their prior immigration status, usually permanent resident status, and could then face deportation.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the government can revoke citizenship if it was illegally procured or obtained through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation. That legal authority has existed for years, but the administration has widened the categories of cases it wants lawyers to pursue.

An internal Civil Division memo dated June 11, 2025 told attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.” The memo listed national security cases, war crimes, sex offenses, violent crimes, financial fraud, and other serious misconduct among the priorities.

The allegations in the current cases cover a broad range. Some involve accusations or convictions tied to violent or serious crimes, including sex offenses against children. Others center on fraud crimes, wire fraud, healthcare fraud, or immigration fraud.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the effort in blunt terms. “Individuals implicated in committing fraud, heinous crimes such as sexual abuse, or expressing support for terrorism should never have been naturalized as United States citizens,” Blanche said.

Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate cast the filings as part of a wider push inside the department. He said the department was acting at “record speeds” to restore integrity to the naturalization system.

One of the named defendants is Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 48, of Iraq. The government accused him of lying under oath about his criminal and family history when he naturalized in 2015.

Another case names Oscar Alberto Pelaez, 75, of Colombia, a Roman Catholic priest. He was accused of sexually abusing a child from 1998 to 2000 and of concealing material facts about his background.

Other filings reach across a wide set of countries and accusations. The list includes a Haitian immigrant accused of sexually abusing his daughter, a former Yugoslav national convicted of sexually abusing a child under 15, and a Mexican immigrant convicted of receiving sexually explicit images of minors.

The cases also include a Filipino-born man who pleaded guilty to a child sex crime, an Indian immigrant accused of filing fraudulent H-1B petitions, a Jamaican-born man convicted of wire fraud, and a Cuban-born woman accused of defrauding a tribal casino.

Taken together, the filings show how broadly the department is defining the current drive. Some cases focus on alleged lies made during the naturalization process itself. Others combine those allegations with criminal conduct that officials say should have disqualified the person from becoming a citizen in the first place.

That distinction is central in denaturalization cases. The government is not simply revisiting criminal convictions after the fact; it is arguing that citizenship was obtained unlawfully because material facts were hidden or misrepresented when naturalization was granted.

Federal courts will decide whether those claims hold up. Each person named in the filings can contest the allegations, challenge the government’s legal theory, and force the department to prove that citizenship was illegally procured or obtained through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.

The consequences reach beyond the loss of a passport. A successful denaturalization case usually strips a person of the legal status that came with citizenship and returns that person to the immigration position held before naturalization, most often permanent resident status, opening the way to deportation proceedings.

Officials have presented the campaign as a systemwide integrity effort, not a one-off collection of lawsuits. The June 11, 2025 memo gave department attorneys a clear instruction to pursue such cases aggressively, and the sequence from 12 denaturalization cases in May 2026 to 17 U.S. citizens in the latest round shows how quickly that policy has expanded.

The administration’s language has been explicit. Blanche tied the push to cases involving fraud, sexual abuse, and support for terrorism. Shumate pointed to “record speeds,” framing the work as an accelerated effort to police the naturalization system.

Denaturalization remains a civil process, but its impact can rival criminal punishment in practical terms. Losing citizenship can mean losing the right to remain in the country as an American, even before any separate deportation case begins.

The latest filings also illustrate how the government is pairing immigration law with allegations that range far beyond paperwork violations. In the department’s telling, immigration fraud sits beside wire fraud, healthcare fraud, and sex offenses as grounds for revisiting whether citizenship should ever have been granted.

Naturalized Americans named in the new cases now face a court process that tests both the facts and the government’s proof. Judges will weigh whether the administration can show that each person’s citizenship was obtained illegally, or through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation, before any denaturalization order can take effect.

The result is a campaign the administration says is unprecedented in scale, built on an old statutory power and a newer internal directive to use it more aggressively. With 17 U.S. citizens now targeted and officials describing the initiative as the largest-ever denaturalization effort, the courts will determine how far that push can go.