The Justice Department announced Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, that it has filed denaturalization actions in multiple U.S. district courts against 40 naturalized citizens accused of serious offenses, including acting as an agent for a foreign government, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated sodomy, and immigration fraud. The complaints were filed between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2, 2026, and the department says the batch is the largest volume of denaturalization complaints submitted in a single period under the Trump administration. Attorney General Todd Blanche called it "the largest denaturalization effort in modern history," and Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said "every single one of these individuals lied their way into U.S. citizenship."

The sheer volume is the story: 40 cases in roughly six weeks. According to USA Today, which cited the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRACE) data project, the six-week total exceeds attempted denaturalizations of the past several years combined, and researchers at TRACE warned in a June report that "denaturalization, once a rare occurrence in federal courts, is now becoming increasingly common." Per The New York Times, as cited by USA Today, there were an average of 11 denaturalization cases per year between 1990 and 2017. A Justice Department official told NBC News, according to The Daily Wire, that previous administrations averaged about 15 cases a year.

At least 19 of the 40 people face denaturalization proceedings over accusations of lying on visa forms rather than violent offenses, USA Today reports. Among them is Walid Osman, a 62-year-old from Egypt accused of lying on naturalization forms; his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told USA Today that "the DOJ's filing is riddled with errors and speculation" and that Osman has no criminal record to speak of. In Louisiana, The Advocate reports the first denaturalization attempt in the Middle District of Louisiana targets Nachhatar Singh, 68, a gas station owner in Denham Springs accused of using a second identity after a 1996 deportation order — a claim his lawyer notes relies on evidence unchanged since Singh was questioned in 2014.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a naturalized citizen's citizenship can be revoked if naturalization was illegally procured or obtained by concealing a material fact or by willful misrepresentation. Civil denaturalization cases carry a lower burden of proof than criminal ones, do not entitle defendants to a court-appointed lawyer, and have no statute of limitations, The Advocate reports. Denaturalization was once largely reserved for war criminals and human rights abusers who concealed their pasts. A 2025 Justice Department memo urged civil division attorneys to prioritize denaturalizations, and The Daily Wire reports that in April the administration identified 384 foreign-born Americans as potential targets, suggesting the current sweep may expand further.

Each complaint must now proceed through federal district court, where the government must prove that misrepresented or concealed facts would have affected the outcome of the naturalization application — a standard defense attorneys like Singh's are expected to challenge, arguing their clients' conduct did not meet the debated legal definition of "material" misrepresentation. With TRACE researchers predicting the increase in filings will continue, the courts will determine whether the largest denaturalization push in modern history becomes a durable enforcement template.