DOJ Now Using Past Tax Mistakes to Strip US Citizenship

A single unreported tax form from years ago could now be grounds to strip someone of US citizenship.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has established denaturalization as one of its five enforcement priorities, instructing attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”

The June 11 memorandum from Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate outlines ten categories of cases for citizenship revocation, extending well beyond the traditional focus on war criminals and national security threats.

The new priorities notably include “financial fraud against the United States,” explicitly listing tax violations alongside Medicare and Paycheck Protection Program fraud. The memo also targets “fraud against private individuals, funds, or corporations,” marking a radical expansion from historical practice where authorities reserved denaturalization for Nazi war criminals, spies, and terrorists.

The implications for America’s nearly 25 million naturalized citizens are profound. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that tax underreporting costs approximately $500 billion annually, as millions of Americans make errors through forgotten cash income, misunderstood deductions, or calculation mistakes. Under the new guidelines, any naturalized citizen who made such errors before obtaining citizenship could face denaturalization if they failed to disclose them during the naturalization process.

The shift to civil proceedings amplifies this vulnerability. Unlike criminal cases requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt, civil denaturalization needs only “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence.”

Defendants receive no appointed attorney, no jury trial, and face no statute of limitations. The memo states these categories “do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case,” and the tenth category grants discretion to pursue “any other cases referred to the Civil Division that the Division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.”

This creates what the Supreme Court warned against in 1967: Two levels of citizenship. Native-born Americans who commit tax fraud face fines, penalties, and potential imprisonment. Naturalized Americans face these same consequences, including the loss of their citizenship for conduct that occurred before they even became American.

The expanded priorities encompass ten categories total, ranging from traditional grounds like individuals who “pose a potential danger to national security” and those who “engaged in torture, war crimes, or other human rights violations” to those who “further or furthered the unlawful enterprise of criminal gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and drug cartels.” The inclusion of financial crimes alongside these severe offenses represents a fundamental shift in how the government views denaturalization.

Historical context underscores this transformation. Denaturalization peaked during the McCarthy era, when authorities stripped 22,000 people of citizenship between 1907 and 1967. The Supreme Court’s intervention reduced cases to single digits annually for decades.

The Obama administration’s Operation Janus used digital tools to investigate naturalization fraud but focused on national security threats. Trump’s first term saw cases more than double to 90 in 2018, according to Bloomberg Law’s analysis.

The new guidelines have already produced results. Bloomberg Law reports that prosecutors moved to denaturalize Vanessa Ben, a Houston grandmother and accountant who pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return before becoming a citizen.

Ben had underreported income and received a $7,712 refund, served 12 months in prison, and paid fines. Prosecutors now argue she concealed this violation during her 2017-2018 naturalization interviews, where applicants must affirm “good moral character” and disclose any crimes, even uncharged ones.

NPR reported another early case under expanded enforcement: Elliott Duke, a British Army veteran who became stateless after losing US citizenship for distributing child sexual abuse material before naturalization. Having renounced British citizenship to become American, Duke now belongs to no country. While Duke committed serious crimes, the precedent extends to far more common offenses.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a web portal tracking denaturalization cases, listing individuals convicted of crimes from sex trafficking to financial fraud. The DOJ received $150 billion in congressional funding for immigration enforcement, though specific denaturalization allocations remain undisclosed.

The memo positions denaturalization within broader administration priorities, including “ending illegal discrimination” and “combating anti-semitism,” connecting each to potential citizenship revocation through False Claims Act violations. Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed aggressive pursuit across all categories, as the memo emphasizes these efforts “support the overall integrity of the naturalization program.”

During naturalization interviews, applicants must answer whether they have “ever committed a crime,” even those the government never charged. Years later, a forgotten tax form or unreported tip income could emerge as grounds for losing citizenship. The civil proceedings offer limited defense options, creating lifetime jeopardy for pre-citizenship conduct.

Nearly 25 million naturalized citizens comprise roughly seven percent of America’s population. No statute of limitations exists, and prosecutors enjoy broad discretion, meaning that every naturalized citizen who has ever made a financial mistake before becoming an American faces potential denaturalization.

Tax compliance issues that result in fines for native-born Americans can strip naturalized citizens of their American identity, fundamentally altering what it means to be an American citizen.