The Trump administration has codified its efforts to strip some Americans of their US citizenship in a recently published justice department memo that directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization for naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes.
The memo, published on 11 June, calls on attorneys in the department to institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either “illegally procured” naturalization or procured naturalization by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation”.
At the center of the move are the estimated 25 million US citizens who immigrated to the country after being born abroad, according to data from 2023 – and it lists 10 different priority categories for denaturalization.
According to the memo, those subjected to civil proceedings are not entitled to an attorney like they are in criminal cases. And the government has a lighter burden of proof in civil cases than they do in criminal ones.
Edit: According to the Miami Herald, it depends on where you live:
The Supreme Court’s ruling means the judges’ injunctions blocking Trump’s executive order only affect the jurisdictions where immigrant groups filed their lawsuits — leaving the rest of the country, including Florida, subject to the president’s citizenship order. The turn of events is likely to lead to more federal lawsuits, including a class action case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire on Friday.
Ironically, this exactly describes Elon Musk’s situation where he was misrepresenting that he was on a student visa while he was working on a startup. Which would be a willful misrepresentation and grounds to have his citizenship revoked.
It’s also a blank check to selective enforcement when any material fact discrepancy can be investigated and used to target any recent immigrants.
Also Melania with her Einstein visa.
I misread as Epstein visa at first lol
Yep, people all think that a criminal history means they did something bad like robbing a store or assaulting people. It’s not, it could be that they were here illegally for 6 months before they became legal.
Elon Musk misrepresented his visa back in the day and was therefore technically illegal for a period, so at the very least he should get dropped in the emerald mines.