Justice Department Seeks to Strip Citizenship From 40 People in Largest Denaturalization Push Yet

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (TodayViralUSA) — The Justice Department has asked federal courts to revoke the U.S. citizenship of 40 naturalized Americans accused of serious crimes, a move Attorney General Todd Blanche described as the largest denaturalization effort in modern history.

The department said on Monday that the cases were filed in multiple federal district courts between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2. The people named are accused of offenses that include acting as an agent of a foreign government, voluntary manslaughter and the aggravated sodomy of a man with special needs, along with cases involving child sexual abuse, fraud and tax evasion.

“These defendants concealed critical facts from the U.S. government and represent serious criminal offenders,” Blanche said in a statement, adding that the department would “continue to employ the denaturalization process to maintain our national security and protect the American people.”

Who is affected

Those targeted come from a range of countries, including Mexico, China, Iran, Pakistan and the Philippines, The Guardian reported. Among them is Jinchao Wei, a Chinese-born former U.S. Navy sailor convicted in August 2025 of espionage and illegally exporting defense-related technical data. Prosecutors have said Wei began plotting to sell military secrets to China months before he became a citizen in May 2022 and hid that conduct during the naturalization process. He was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a federal court can cancel naturalization if the government proves citizenship was obtained illegally or through the concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation. Each case must be decided by a judge.

A growing campaign

The filings mark an escalation of an effort that has gathered pace through the year. The department moved against 17 people in June, 10 in July and 25 in August, according to TIME. A department official told CNN in June that the administration aimed to file at least 250 such cases by this month.

Denaturalization has historically been pursued only sporadically because the cases are costly and labor-intensive. The United States denaturalized about 120 people from 2017 to late 2025, The New York Times has reported, and the newspaper said in April that the department had identified at least 384 foreign-born citizens whose naturalization it wanted to revoke.

The department issued a memo in 2025 directing its civil division to expand denaturalization efforts and broaden the categories of people who qualify. Critics and some legal experts say the push supports the administration’s wider mass-deportation agenda and could unsettle the security that citizenship has traditionally provided to naturalized Americans.