The Trump Administration is now proposing to strip citizenship from naturalized U.S. citizens who are found to have lied in their naturalization process, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Its a process called 'Denaturalization,' and San Antonio immigration attorney Lance Curtright tells News Radio 1200 WOAI it is legal
."They can denaturalize individuals if they think there was a willful misrepresentation in the process, or they think the person was not eligible at the time," he said.
Denaturalization only applies to naturalized citizens, which are people who were born elsewhere and became U.S. citizens through the naturalization process. It does not apply to native born citizens, who have what is called 'birthright citizenship' which cannot be revoked.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has begun a process of reopening naturalization files, but only in cases where there is a suspicion that the person lied in the lengthy and sometimes tedious process of receiving U.S. citizenship. CIS is mainly investigating lying in applications for work permits, so called 'green cards,' as well as asylum and permanent resident status.
But Curtright says these cases are very rare, and this could hamstring the already burdened process of dealing with new arrivals and new claims for asylum.
"We have this massive overreaction where you are going to hire all these individuals and not really beef up what is necessary," he said. "What is going to happen is this is going to cause more delay."
More than 2500 cases are currently being actively reviewed, with about 100 referred to the Justice Department for citizenship denial, according to 'The Hill.'The main cause of the review of the citizenship grant is that the person had previously been denied citizenship or even ordered deported, but then applied for citizenship under a phony name.