Acting AG Blanche Says Fraudulent Naturalized Citizens Should Be Worried

Phoenix — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche touted the Trump administration's expanded efforts to revoke the citizenship of certain foreign-born Americans on Wednesday, telling CBS News "a lot" of them should not be citizens.

In a sit-down interview in Phoenix, Blanche said the second Trump administration is pursuing more denaturalization cases now than in the last nine years. He asserted that immigrants who obtained American citizenship fraudulently should be "worried."

"If you're going to come and become a citizen in this country, but you're going to do it by fraud, you're going to do it in a way that's illegal, you should be worried," Blanche said.

Asked who is being targeted by the denaturalization campaign, Blanche replied, "We are not limiting ourselves to anybody in particular, except to say that unfortunately, and I think you're going to hear more about this in the coming days and weeks, there are a lot of individuals who are citizens who shouldn't be."

Blanche declined to provide a specific number on how many naturalized citizens could lose their citizenship under the crackdown. The effort is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to more heavily scrutinize legal immigrants.

While most components of the U.S. immigration system fall under the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department handles revoking the citizenship of naturalized citizens.

That requires a complicated and rarely used legal procedure to persuade judges to denaturalize U.S. citizens born overseas through civil or criminal proceedings in federal court. The Justice Department must prove the person obtained citizenship fraudulently, such as by lying on applications. Between 1990 and 2017, federal officials filed slightly more than 300 denaturalization cases, an annual average of 11.

Historically, denaturalizations have targeted egregious cases, mainly naturalized citizens accused of human rights abuses, violent offenses or national security threats. Last year, the Justice Department issued a memo directing officials to prioritize broader categories, including those accused of financial fraud. Trump administration officials have publicly pushed to increase denaturalizations.

The campaign has alarmed some naturalized citizens, a group numbering 24 million in 2023. Asked about those concerns, Blanche said he does not know "why they would be concerned" if they did not obtain citizenship illegally.

"I don't think it's true that those 24 million citizens are worried. I think there's a very small percentage of them who are worried. And yes, they should be," he added.

Blanche said he was not sure why the campaign is "even controversial."

"We shouldn't tolerate fraud," he said. "We shouldn't tolerate lies."

Blanche noted that targets of denaturalization efforts can challenge the procedure. He called revoking citizenship a "drastic consequence" but said committing fraud to obtain it is also a "drastic action."