The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to strip U.S. citizenship from foreign-born Americans, targeting naturalized citizens who are suspected of fraud or misrepresentation on their applications.

According to NBC, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials are now deploying specialists to over 80 field offices nationwide. Staff is being urged to hunt for 100 to 200 potential cases each month—a massive jump from the rare denaturalizations of past years, which average less than a hundred per year.

This push, first noted by The New York Times late last year, aligns with President Trump's broader immigration crackdown.

“It’s no secret that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ war on fraud includes prioritizing those who’ve unlawfully obtained U.S. citizenship — especially under the previous administration,” said Matthew J. Tragesser, a U.S.C.I.S. spokesman, to NBC.

“We will pursue denaturalization proceedings for those individuals lying or misrepresenting themselves during the naturalization process,” he continued. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Justice to restore integrity to America’s immigration system.” Tragesser insists it's all about "zero tolerance for fraud," focusing on national security threats, war criminals, or those who hid felonies like Medicaid scams.

For those under 35 who arrived in the U.S. as children or those who’ve built lives after naturalization, the news may come as a shock. The Times notes that a Bloomberg Law analysis found that denaturalization cases peaked in 2018, when 90 criminal and civil cases were filed.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, around 800,000 people become naturalized citizens every year.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that citizenship and naturalization are too precious and fundamental to our democracy for the government to take it away on their whim. Instead of wasting resources digging through Americans’ files, U.S.C.I.S. should do its job of processing applications, as Congress mandated,” Amanda Baran, a former senior U.S.C.I.S. official in the Biden administration, said to The Times last year.

The Justice Department is urging aggressive pursuit of anyone deemed a "threat" or who "undermines domestic tranquility," echoing Trump's Thanksgiving Truth Social post vowing to boot non-"net assets."

Experts emphasize that these kinds of cases often drag across presidencies, and despite the crackdown, this process is more complicated than the whims of whoever sits in the Oval Office.

“It’s so important for current and future naturalized U.S. citizens to know that no president can unilaterally strip people of the citizenship they’ve worked so hard to earn,” said Doug Rand, another former USCIS official, to NBC.