Naturalized Citizens Who Commit Serious Crimes Should Face Denaturalization and Deportation
Source: Luke Miller. "Senators Explore Avenues To Denaturalize Foreign Fraudsters." June 5, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that people who become U.S. citizens through the naturalization process should lose their citizenship and be deported if they commit serious crimes or if it's discovered they lied to get citizenship in the first place. He believes the current system is too weak and allows dangerous people to keep their citizenship even after proving they don't deserve it.
Conclusion
The U.S. should expand denaturalization powers to revoke citizenship from naturalized immigrants who commit serious crimes or obtained citizenship fraudulently, even beyond the current 5-year window
Premises
- Naturalized citizens made up over 25% of international terrorism convictions from 9/11 through 2016, showing disproportionate involvement in serious crimes
- Current cases like Mohamed Bailor Jalloh (who killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah after a terrorism conviction) demonstrate that failure to denaturalize dangerous individuals leads to preventable deaths
- Operation Janus found 315,000 cases of missing fingerprint data and 858 people with deportation orders who obtained citizenship with false identities, indicating systematic fraud
- The naturalization process has been weakened since the Clinton Administration prioritized quantity over quality for political purposes
- American citizenship requires an oath of allegiance and demonstration of good moral character - violating these through serious crimes breaks the fundamental contract of naturalization
- If citizenship obtained through fraud or violated through serious crimes is never revoked, the naturalization process becomes meaningless theater
Assumptions
- Naturalized citizenship is a privilege that can be legitimately revoked, not an irrevocable right equivalent to birthright citizenship
- Past criminal behavior or fraud is a reliable indicator that someone should not have received citizenship
- Denaturalization serves as both punishment and prevention of future crimes
- The government has the authority and responsibility to retroactively correct citizenship decisions
- Public safety justifies treating naturalized citizens differently from natural-born citizens in certain circumstances