Uptick in denaturalization cases filed by federal government, TRAC research shows
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Department of Justice says the number of people having their citizenship taken away by the federal government has increased in the last year.
The Department of Justice reports they have filed 123 denaturalization cases since January 2025.
"Getting rid of the naturalization, taking back the naturalization, which is the citizenship process," immigration attorney Ruby Powers said.
Powers said there's been an uptick in this conversation and calls it rare to see the rise in denaturalization cases.
"It is opening a can of worms for people to be afraid and to question," Powers explained.
Powers has been an immigration attorney for nearly two decades and has seen all kinds of cases come across her desk, except for denaturalization representation, since she said it's so uncommon.
Research from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows a rise in denaturalization cases filed by the federal government to revoke Americans' citizenship.
Their data shows historically the government has filed, on average, one of these cases a month.
TRAC reported in the summer of 2026 that 15 cases were filed in May and 18 in June.
The Department of Justice said they've had 25 of these cases in the last month alone.
"I think that the intent by the administration is to cause fear, unfortunately, to put people's status in question - even those that are citizens. But I really think those that had nothing to do with criminal manner or mislead the govt on any info they provided they shouldn't have anything to worry about," Powers said.
TRAC data shows there have been 166 denaturalization cases across the country since 2008.
"The whole focus, in general, has put a lot of people on edge and makes them feel as if they're less than a US citizen, thinking it's only a matter of time," Powers said. "I feel as an immigration attorney we're just playing whack-a-mole...something over here...something over there.... Something over there."
Powers said there shouldn't be a concern at this point, as they're waiting to see what happens.
