Washington, DC (July 1, 2025) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) condemns a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) directive calling for the revocation of citizenship for people accused of certain crimes via civil proceedings, which carry a lower burden of proof and do not require the government to provide the accused with an attorney if they cannot afford one.
While the directive ostensibly targets "citizenship if an individual either ‘illegally procured’ naturalization or procured naturalization by ‘concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,’" the memo’s broad scope and vague language suggest any naturalized citizen risks losing their citizenship for any number of criminal convictions. From the memo:
The benefits of civil denaturalization include the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to U.S. soil or traveling internationally on a U.S. passport.
"The Trump Administration’s push to revoke citizenship is alarming, and raises serious Fourteenth Amendment concerns," said NACDL President Christopher Wellborn. "The use of civil litigation to evade Sixth Amendment obligations demonstrates contempt for the right to counsel. And although the memo purports to target concealment of earlier offenses, the language suggests that any offense, at any time, may be used to justify denaturalization. This is particularly concerning given the administration’s reliance on vague claims of gang affiliation in deportations. In effect, this directive sends the message that those not born in the United States risk losing their citizenship for previous or future conduct, creating an unacceptable threat that a criminal charge could rip them from their communities. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where the government invokes unsubstantiated claims of gang affiliation or uses an individual’s criminal record to claim that citizenship was illegally procured. The threat to due process, particularly without the guarantee of legal representation, is incalculable."
