by Ben Whedon
The Department of Justice on Monday announced that it had begun the process of denaturalizing 10 criminals with prior convictions and/or pending charges.
The 10 individuals hail from Cuba, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, and Poland. Their charges include sexual abuse, fraud, drug trafficking, and other crimes.
“These ten criminal aliens — including child sex abusers, a $900,000 Medicare fraudster, and a cocaine trafficker — lied their way into U.S. citizenship,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
“Each of these individuals lacked the good moral character required by law and procured citizenship through willful misrepresentations and concealment of their crimes,” he added. “Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue denaturalization to restore integrity to America’s naturalization process.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, “When you commit fraud during the naturalization process, you forfeit the right to keep your U.S. citizenship.”
“These criminal aliens, comprised of drug traffickers, pedophiles, and fraudsters, lost that right and exploited our immigration system—harming real U.S. citizens. DHS is committed to ensuring we denaturalize and remove these fraudsters with every tool at our disposal,” he added.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the United States can’t “give a free pass to criminals who cheated their way into American citizenship.”
“Under this administration, if you defrauded the naturalization process, you will face the full force of the Justice Department. We’ve only scratched the surface — many more complaints are coming,” he said.
Denaturalization is a relatively rare process, but often occurs when a recipient commits fraud to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Between 2008 and June 12, 2026, America has denaturalized 166 people, according to TRAC Immigration.
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “DOJ Logo” by The United States Department of Justice.
