If You Cheated to Become American, You Were Never American
Brian Lonergan
Director of Strategic Communications & Content
Published May 19, 2026
While a public debate rages over how aggressively the federal government should enforce deportations, the Department of Justice recently took a quiet but consequential step toward restoring integrity to America’s immigration system.
On May 8, federal prosecutors filed denaturalization actions in courts across the country against 12 naturalized U.S. citizens. The grounds for the actions could not be more serious: concealing material support for terrorist groups, committing war crimes, espionage, sexually abusing a minor, and other fraud committed during the naturalization process. One Iraqi national allegedly lied under oath about his role in leading an al-Qaeda cell and murdering police officers. Others concealed ties to al-Shabab or child sexual abuse. In short, the filings against the naturalized citizens claim they lied in order to obtain legal status in the United States.
This move to denaturalize fraudulent migrants smashes the hysterical narrative that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Justice Department are “targeting legal immigrants.” The reality is that law-abiding naturalized citizens who told the truth have nothing to fear. What Illegal Immigration, Inc. wants is yet more violations of our laws to be overlooked.
Denaturalization is not new, nor is it punishment. It is a long-standing civil remedy in U.S. immigration law, which allows the government to revoke citizenship if it was “illegally procured” or obtained “by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” The Supreme Court has long upheld this authority, recognizing that citizenship is not a right but a solemn contract. When someone lies on his or her application—about criminal history, terrorist affiliations, or war crimes—that person was never truly qualified. Denaturalization is simply correcting the record.
https://www.fairus.org/opinion/if-you-cheated-become-american-you-were-never-american
