(MINNESOTA) — President Donald Trump said he would strip US citizenship “in a heartbeat” from naturalized Americans he deems “dishonest,” as his administration moves to sharply expand denaturalization cases through quotas and a new enforcement operation centered in Minnesota.
“I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest. I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country. If they deserve to be stripped, I would, yes,” Trump said in a January 7, 2026 interview with The New York Times, referring to investigations into fraudulent schemes in Minnesota.
U.S. citizenship and immigration services has framed the push as a crackdown on fraud, with a USCIS spokesperson calling it a “war on fraud” in a December 19, 2025 statement. “We will pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process,” the spokesperson said.
Operation PARRIS and Minnesota Initiative
The stepped-up effort includes a new Minnesota–based initiative announced days after trump’s remarks. On January 9, 2026, DHS and USCIS announced the launch of Operation PARRIS in Minnesota, describing it as a sweeping re-examination of thousands of refugee and naturalization cases.
operation parris includes new background checks and “intensive verification” of claims made by individuals from countries the administration has labeled “high-risk,” according to the USCIS Newsroom announcement. The effort also aligns with Trump’s recent comments that singled out people “that came in from Somalia,” while administration materials describe a broader focus on nationals from 39 “high-risk” countries.
Department of Justice Direction and Priorities
Alongside the Minnesota operation, the Department of Justice has directed prosecutors to make denaturalization a priority nationwide. A June 11, 2025 memorandum from the DOJ Civil Division titled “Prioritizing Denaturalization” instructed U.S. Attorneys to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law.”
The memo identifies ten priority categories for cases, including national security violations and terrorism, serious human rights abuses such as war crimes and extrajudicial killings, fraud against the government including PPP loan fraud and Medicaid/Medicare fraud, and gang membership or posing an “ongoing threat” to the U.S.
- National security violations and terrorism
- Serious human rights abuses such as war crimes and extrajudicial killings
- Fraud against the government including PPP loan fraud and Medicaid/Medicare fraud
- Gang membership or posing an “ongoing threat” to the U.S.
Quotas, Case Targets, and Historical Context
Internal USCIS guidance has also set numeric targets for the pipeline of cases. Guidance issued in December 2025 instructs field offices to supply the Office of Immigration Litigation with 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month for fiscal year 2026.
Those monthly quotas translate into a projected 1,200 to 2,400 cases per year in 2026. Before 2017, denaturalization averaged 11 cases per year, a shift the administration’s figures describe as more than a 10,000% increase from pre-Trump historical norms.
Legal Framework and Consequences
Denaturalization cases typically proceed as a civil matter under 8 U.S.C. § 1451, rather than as criminal prosecutions. Under that framework, defendants are not entitled to a government-provided attorney, and the government faces a lower burden of proof than “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Administration materials describe denaturalization as focused on naturalized citizens, foreign-born people who obtained citizenship through the legal naturalization process. The government’s rationale, as described in the materials, is that citizenship can be revoked if it was “illegally procured” or obtained via “willful misrepresentation” of any material fact.
For individuals who lose citizenship, the consequences can extend beyond the loss of a passport or voting rights. Once citizenship is revoked, a person reverts to Lawful Permanent Resident status, and in most cases the underlying reason for denaturalization, such as fraud or criminal conduct, simultaneously makes the person deportable, leading immediately to removal proceedings.
Parallel Effort: Birthright Citizenship
The denaturalization drive is unfolding alongside a separate legal fight over birthright citizenship. Executive Order 14160, issued January 2025, attempts to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents without lawful status, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed on December 5, 2025, to review the constitutionality of that order, with a ruling expected by summer 2026.
While the two efforts target different groups, both point to a broader attempt to reshape who gets to remain a U.S. citizen and on what terms. Denaturalization targets naturalized Americans accused of misrepresentation or illegal procurement, while the executive order aims at children born in the United States under a new standard tied to their parents’ immigration status.
Impact on Communities and Criticism
In Minnesota, Trump’s remarks and the launch of Operation PARRIS have placed particular attention on the Somali-American community. Administration materials say the operation and recent rhetoric specifically focus on Somali-Americans in Minnesota and on nationals from 39 “high-risk” countries, even as the Justice Department memo sets a wider menu of case types.
The quota-driven approach has also prompted warnings about broader community effects. Legal experts and advocates argue that quotas encourage USCIS to search for minor “typos” or unintentional errors in old applications to meet numeric targets, creating what they call a “systemic chilling” effect among the estimated 25 million naturalized Americans.
The administration’s own framing has emphasized fraud and national security, using denaturalization as a tool against people it argues were never entitled to citizenship in the first place. Trump’s language has been more sweeping, asserting without qualification that “many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country,” while also tying his willingness to act to whether people were “dishonest” and whether they “deserve to be stripped.”
USCIS has presented the campaign as enforcement against misrepresentation during naturalization, and its spokesperson’s December statement emphasized the agency’s intent to pursue cases against people “lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process.” The DOJ memo, meanwhile, directs prosecutors to use the full range of denaturalization authority “in all cases permitted by law.”
Sources and Public Materials
The sources for the administration’s denaturalization policies and operations include USCIS Newsroom announcements and press releases, DOJ Civil Division memos, and DHS press releases. USCIS has posted broader public updates through its newsroom at uscis.gov/newsroom, while the Justice Department civil materials are collected at justice.gov/civil and DHS updates are available at dhs.gov/news.
By combining a new Minnesota operation with a nationwide directive to pursue denaturalization more aggressively, the administration has shifted the program from sporadic litigation into a quota-backed enforcement effort. Trump’s own words, promising to strip US citizenship “in heartbeat,” have pushed the policy beyond legal memoranda and agency statements and into the center of public debate over the rights of naturalized Americans.
The administration has launched a systematic campaign to revoke U.S. citizenship, utilizing Operation PARRIS and monthly quotas of 100-200 cases per field office. Targeted categories include fraud, national security risks, and human rights abuses. This shift toward civil denaturalization proceedings, which offer fewer legal protections for defendants, coincides with a separate Supreme Court battle over birthright citizenship, signaling a broad effort to redefine American citizenship standards.
