Trump Administration is Stripping Citizenship: Is It Legal?

The Department of Justice has quietly set up an office to start the process of stripping up to 300,000 naturalized citizens of citizenship and deport them. 

Their pretext? Some people cheated to get citizenship. 

No doubt, this is true—my father was such a person when he lied about his entry upon entering Ellis Island. Jews over 18 were ineligible for admission and certainly for citizenship.

There are nine requirements for a foreign-born person to become a naturalized citizen, but key parts are (a) five years of permanent residence in the U.S., (b) English writing and speaking proficiency, and (c) good moral character. 

Against this backdrop, a federal judge ruled on July 11^th that a naturalized citizen—now, a convicted terrorist— cannot be stripped of citizenship. Judge Staci Yanle wrote: “American citizenship is precious, and the government carries a heavy burden of proof when attempting to divest a naturalized citizen of his or her citizenship.” Her point was that the Trump team's proof of the man's fraudulent immigration process was speculative.

Where did the idea of naturalization come from? Some of our constitutional framers were born in foreign lands—for example, Alexander Hamilton. 

America was founded on the idea that the nation could be open to foreign-born people—people who could meet certain standards for naturalized citizenship.

A 1976 law review article by Michael Hertz points out that America has not lived up to the text and intent behind the so-called “naturalization clause” that gave Congress the power to make uniform laws for this purpose. This answers the question I posed in the title.

Hertz says: “Examples of where the naturalization laws have not operated in accordance with the Constitution are numerous.” He cites several examples.

So, the answer appears to be that the Trump administration has some basis for taking these extraordinary actions. Beyond the legal question, there is the policy question: Why should the U.S. examine the records of 300,000 naturalized citizens to consider citizenship-stripping? One obvious answer is to increase hysteria over immigrants in America.