Could the U.S. government really take away someone’s citizenship?

In this episode of Immigration Weekly, Rosanna talks about a surprising new policy from the Department of Justice that focuses on something called denaturalization – removing U.S. citizenship from people who weren’t born in the country. Rosanna explains what this means, who could be affected, and why this change is such a big deal. From serious crimes like terrorism to things like fraud during the COVID pandemic – if you’re a naturalized citizen or just curious about immigration law, this is one you’ll want to hear.

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Transcript

Everyone’s talking about U.S. immigration law, but nobody really knows how it works. I’m Rosanna Berardi. I’m the daughter of an immigrant, a former immigration inspector at the border, university professor, and founder and managing partner of Berardi Immigration Law.

I’ve done nothing but U.S. immigration law for over 30 years, and it’s time to stop the misinformation on all sides. I’m going to tell you how it all works, the inside story. This is Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Immigration Weekly with your host, Rosanna Berardi. I’m the founder of Berardi Immigration Law. I’m a lawyer.

I’m a mom. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a daughter of an immigrant.

I’m a wife. Welcome back. And just when I think I’ve heard everything in my 28 years, this one’s a doozy.

What Is Denaturalization and Why Now?

Today, we’re talking about something that’s kind of unusual, even for this administration. We’re talking about the government taking away U.S. citizenship, and it’s called denaturalization. And under a new Department of Justice memo issued in June of 25, back in the spotlight, now listen, as someone who has spent nearly three decades practicing immigration law, former immigration inspector, attorney at a university, big law, my own firm, I’ve never seen denaturalization pursued.

We’ve done hundreds and hundreds of citizenship applications for our clients. Fun, joyful. It is the holy grail of the immigration journey.

I’ve never seen it taken away by the government, but now there’s a policy that marks this big shift. Okay, so let’s break this down. What is denaturalization?

Why now is the Department of Justice prioritizing this? Who’s at risk? Do you have a right to an attorney?

This is nuts, you guys. So, okay, big picture, zoom out. Denaturalization means if you were not born in the United States, but you come here through a work permit or a green card, you can ultimately naturalize.

What does that mean? That means the government, the United States government, through citizenship and immigration services can naturalize you to become a United States citizen. This happens a million times a year.

My husband was born in Italy. When he was four years old, he came to America through a green card. When he turned 18, he became a United States citizen.

He’s been a citizen since. He’s 55 right now. He’s been a citizen.

Now, this idea of taking away U.S. citizenship, that’s called denaturalization, taking away the naturalization. Can this be done? Of course.

How Denaturalization Works and Who’s at Risk

It’s under 8 U.S.C. 1451 of the U.S. Code for all you nerds out there. And that says, yeah, of course the government can remove citizenship for some very bad acting, like fraud, willful representation, illegal procurement, war crimes, gangs, you know, all that bad stuff. And there’s two kinds.

There’s criminal denaturalization, which means if you engage in a really high level crime, the government can remove your citizenship. And that’s standard. Think about all the criminal trials you see on Court TV.

What’s the standard for Court TV? Beyond a reasonable doubt. There’s also civil denaturalization.

The second type, civil denaturalization, is when there’s a civil lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice for a reason, but the standard of proof that the government has to show to take it away, much, much lower. Clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence. We don’t have the beyond a reasonable doubt.

Much easier standard to prove. Typically, who did we denaturalize? Usually Nazi war criminals, human rights violators, terrorists.

Rarely. I’ve never seen this in 30 years. I have a host of colleagues around the globe, never seen one of these cases.

So think about it this way. U.S. citizenship, it’s the holy grail of the immigration journey. When you’re a U.S. citizen, typically, no one can take it away from you. You can vote in our illustrious political system. Immigration analysts like me view U.S. citizenship like concrete or cement, like it is permanent, it is fixed. Denaturalization, the jackhammer, coming close to break that up.

It’s been used very sparingly until now. So what’s going on here? Well, the Department of Justice sent a memo out to U.S. attorneys nationwide asking them to prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization cases. Okay, why? They listed about 10 reasons why, and most of them the average American would agree with. So, you know, if someone’s engaging in terrorism, espionage, national security threats, war crimes, criminal gang membership, felonies, if you had a felony, you didn’t disclose it on your naturalization application, big deal.

Human trafficking, sex offenses. Okay, here’s where it gets sticky and controversial to me. Financial crimes, including, remember the PPP loans during COVID when the government would give businesses like mine money to stay open and alive.

If you committed fraud, and there’s a lot of people that committed fraud on that if you Google it. Medicare, Medicaid fraud, fraud against private individuals or corporations. Like this is some low-level behavior.

If you engaged in any of this stuff and you didn’t reveal it, we don’t know if you engaged in it subsequently what will happen, but normally we would never see the government trying to take away U.S. citizenship unless it was for a really big deal like espionage, terrorism, but now procedural fraud, PPP fraud, undisclosed criminal records. Is the government going on a witch hunt? Maybe.

I don’t know. I’ve never seen this in my career. Not using this podcast to stir up fear and alarm, but this is a serious policy shift.

Why? Who the heck knows. The Trump administration is obsessed in looking in every corner, every degree and angle of who’s in the United States unlawfully and who shouldn’t be here.

Not a bad idea because we want to keep America safe. However, one of my colleagues a while ago said, the immigration house is on fire and we’re worried about the curtains. Whoever said that, I give you full credit.

This is another example of worrying about the curtains, just like we’re asking Canadians to register if they’re in the U.S. for more than 30 days, just like foreign students looking at their social media. Now we’re going after U.S. citizens. I get it.

The numbers poll well. People don’t want high-level criminals in the United States. We want to keep our country safe.

Simple and easy, right? But this is nuts. This is going backwards and this is looking at some pretty low-level offenses.

Legal Implications and Final Thoughts

And here is the concern. The U.S. Department of Justice in this memo dated June 11th is saying we are going to civilly prosecute. Why does that matter?

Remember at the beginning of the podcast, the civil burden of proof, much lower. Clear and convincing evidence, not reasonable doubt. Also, why is it a big deal?

Well, if you’re charged civilly with an offense, you can have a lawyer, but unlike criminal cases, there’s no constitutional right to free legal representation. What does that mean? You can’t have legal aid.

You’re going to have to pay for a lawyer is what that means. All right. Don’t lose sleep over this.

I told my husband, don’t lose sleep over this. You’ve been a naturalized U.S. citizen for 40-plus years. You’ve not committed any fraud.

You’ve not done anything wrong. So don’t lose sleep over this. But this is a statement.

This is fact-finding. This is education on what’s going on right now. If you applied for citizenship a long time ago and you didn’t disclose or tell the truth about something, something that might have seen a little bit low-level, should you call your local U.S. CIS office? No, the burden of proof’s really not on you, but the government could reach out and say, hey, we found something that you didn’t disclose and start a civil proceeding. Now, if you are one of the many people that are in queue for U.S. citizenship by way of naturalization, the Form N-400, make sure you know what you’ve done in your past. Make sure you’ve got all of your records, whether they’re immigration, criminal, civil.

And if you do have any questions, I mean, this is a time to reach out to a criminal lawyer, civil lawyer, immigration lawyer. This is not going to apply to the majority of people. It’s just not.

But it’s the government sounding an alarm on something that they normally didn’t pay attention to. This has been in the law since the sands of time. Don’t tell your friends there’s a law.

There’s not. This law is old. It’s old.

What’s different? It’s the same thing that’s always different. It’s an administration coming out with a memo.

Just think of the power of a memo, two or three pages to the U.S. attorney’s office saying, yeah, we’re going to look at this closely. And while this policy is alarming, remember, denaturalization still requires strong evidence. You’ve got to be prepared.

You’ve got to know what you’re doing. General good advice in anything immigration or in life is to be prepared and know what you’re writing down, whether it’s on an application, social media. We need to be truthful in life.

U.S. citizenship’s the cornerstone of your life. Don’t let some willy nilly mishap mess things up. So here we go.

Another policy memo, not a congressional action. This law is old. And I am Rosanna Berardi, and this is Immigration Weekly.

Join me the next time as we cut through the headlines and bring you the real story so you’re the smartest person at your dinner table. Have a great day. This was Immigration Weekly with Rosanna Berardi.

Thanks for joining. Be sure to connect with me, Rosanna Berardi, on LinkedIn or go to our law firm at berardiimmigrationlaw.com. And if you don’t want to miss the latest and greatest, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share this with your friends.

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