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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
José Olivares in New York

Trump seizes on ‘moral character’ loophole as way to revoke citizenship

close up of a hand holding a US flag of a stack of documents
Candidates for US citizenship wait to receive their certificates of naturalization in New York on 4 June 2025. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

A justice department memo directing the department’s civil division to target the denaturalization of US citizens around the country has opened up an new avenue for Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, experts say.

In the US, when a person is denaturalized, they return to the status they held before becoming a citizen. If someone was previously a permanent resident, for example, they will be classified as such again, which can open the door to deportation efforts.

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