The Trump administration is temporarily reassigning immigration lawyers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to federal prosecutors’ offices across the country, a move designed to speed up the government’s expanding effort to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans accused of obtaining it through fraud.
Four former agency officials told Axios about the transfers, which place USCIS attorneys inside U.S. attorney’s offices to work directly on denaturalization cases. A DOJ spokesperson said the department has filed 35 such cases since President Donald Trump began his second term, 12 of them this month alone.
A June 2025 Justice Department memo listed denaturalization as a top priority for the administration, stating that pursuing these cases “supports the overall integrity of the naturalization program.” The scale of the pipeline is significant: DOJ officials have shortlisted 385 people for potential denaturalization charges, a figure first reported by The New York Times in April.
The reassigned USCIS attorneys do not need prior trial or denaturalization experience, according to a third source who spoke to Axios. An active law license is the only requirement. USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler framed the move as a matter of institutional cooperation:
“We are proud to support this critical effort by providing the Department of Justice with a team of our most skilled immigration law attorneys.”
Not everyone inside the agency views the transfers as voluntary. One source described staffers as being “volun-told” to move offices. Another called the process lawyers “being force volunteered.”
The DOJ spokesperson, for its part, said the department welcomed the USCIS assistance “to advance the President’s mission to promote public safety and root out fraud.”
The administration’s willingness to use agency lawyers across departmental lines reflects a broader pattern of consolidating federal legal resources behind its enforcement priorities, a posture visible in recent Senate clashes over government weaponization funding and other internal policy fights.
Denaturalization has been on the administration’s radar since Trump’s first term. Back then, USCIS created a dedicated team of 10 to 15 lawyers to accelerate cases. The agency said it identified 2,500 potential cases, but referred only a fraction to DOJ for prosecution.
USCIS chief Joe Edlow acknowledged last September, at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, that cases flagged by that earlier team were “still kicking around.” But Edlow signaled he wants a different approach this time, not a centralized unit, but a government-wide expectation that every office treats denaturalization as standard practice.
“I think it’s just as useful to have a decentralized denaturalization process. I don’t need it specially sent to an office. I want every office using this as a benchmark.”
That benchmark appears to be taking shape. Edlow added that when evidence of fraud surfaces, the administration will not hesitate: “If that gives rise to the need for a denaturalization, we’re going to move forward.”
On May 8, Justice Department officials announced they were seeking to denaturalize 12 naturalized American citizens. The individuals were accused of crimes or alleged conduct involving murder, terrorism, firearms trafficking, marriage fraud, identity fraud, possession of indecent digital images of minors, and other offenses. They were identified as being from Iraq, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Somalia, The Gambia, Bolivia, Kenya, India, China, and Nigeria.
Todd Blanche told CBS News that people who obtained citizenship through fraud or illegal means “should be worried.” He said the department was “not limiting” itself to any particular category of person and that there are “a lot of individuals who are citizens who shouldn’t be.”
Blanche, who has played a central role in shaping DOJ legal strategy under this administration, has also been involved in other politically charged decisions, including signing an order barring the IRS from auditing Trump’s prior tax returns.
FBI Director Kash Patel broadened the argument on March 18 during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” Patel called for “stronger legislation” giving the government greater power to sentence and remove criminals and terrorists, including strengthening “the ability to denaturalize.”
Patel pointed to a specific case to illustrate his concern: the attacker in the Old Dominion incident, who Patel said had previously been “convicted and sentenced [for] terrorism” but whom “no one bothered to denaturalize him and remove him from the country.” The implication was clear, the existing system had failed to act even when it had the facts in hand.
That kind of enforcement gap has frustrated immigration hawks for years. The Justice Department’s aggressive posture under Trump extends well beyond immigration, but denaturalization represents one of the most legally and politically charged fronts.
For all the administration’s momentum, denaturalization cases are not easy to win. Axios reported that in civil cases involving claims that someone willfully lied on a naturalization application, the government must prove its case with “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt.”
One source told Axios there is a reason “denats” have “never really taken off,” adding: “[I]t’s really hard to prove… the standard is really high, and you need good evidence.”
That evidentiary bar explains why USCIS identified 2,500 potential cases during Trump’s first term but moved on so few. Whether the current approach, flooding U.S. attorney’s offices with immigration lawyers and treating denaturalization as a benchmark expectation, can overcome that bottleneck remains an open question.
The administration is also tightening the broader immigration pipeline. On Friday, May 22, officials announced that migrants already in the United States who seek to use the Adjustment of Status pathway to obtain green cards must generally return to their home countries and apply through U.S. embassies, except in extraordinary circumstances. The policy change does not affect refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants living overseas.
USCIS spokesman Kahler said the shift returns the process “to the original intent of the law” rather than “incentivizing loopholes.” That framing fits the administration’s larger argument: that years of lax enforcement created a system where fraud went unpunished and legal processes were gamed.
The Trump administration’s broader enforcement posture has drawn resistance from federal courts in some areas, including a New York judge who forced ICE back to Biden-era limits on courthouse arrests. Whether denaturalization cases face similar judicial pushback will depend on the strength of the evidence DOJ brings to each filing.
Several questions remain unanswered. How many USCIS lawyers are being transferred, and to which offices? How long will the assignments last? What specific statutory authorities is the government invoking? And can DOJ’s 385-person shortlist survive the demanding evidentiary standard that has historically kept denaturalization numbers low?
The administration is betting that moving skilled immigration attorneys directly into prosecution offices, and making denaturalization a standing expectation rather than a special project, will change the math. The Justice Department’s willingness to break with prior practice on multiple fronts suggests the institutional will is there.
Citizenship obtained honestly has nothing to fear from this effort. Citizenship obtained through fraud was never legitimate in the first place, and a government that refuses to say so isn’t protecting the rule of law. It’s abandoning it.
By signing up, you agree to receive newsletters and promotional content from American Frontline News and selected publications in the American Digest Media Network, operated with Patriot Mom Digest LLC, and you accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
By signing up, you agree to receive newsletters and promotional content from American Frontline News and selected publications in the American Digest Media Network, operated with Patriot Mom Digest LLC, and you accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.