Originally published at: DOJ Describes Plan To Denaturalize Citizens on Scale That Has Never Been Tried - TPM – Talking Points Memo
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. The Trump administration wants to take away citizenship from naturalized Americans on a massive scale. While a recent Justice Department memo prioritizes national security cases, it directs the department to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all…
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Sorry Elon…
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I’d be marginally more resigned to this only if “Einstein” Malaria is right at the top of the list.
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“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
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Well there are two dimensions to it. It is not just about “Mexicans” or South Americans, it is also a plot to depopulate the US from any undesired population, say Muslims. They are aligned with Hamas and are a security threat so they should be removed. Who needs just a Muslim ban when you can depopulate the current Muslims. Any liberal Europeans will also be booted. Or scared into submission. Needless to say the next Democratic Governement must plan to deport a lot of MAGA people to get them back to the “negotiating table” or else there will be a no long term truce possible. Unless MAGA folks and specially people in Trump Admin actually see the inside of a prison, preferably in the jungles of Papua New Guniea (with whose government Democrats have a trade deal … hahahah… wink wink), they will never learn. It is time for serious push back or it will end with actual civil war.
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You might be looking through the wrong end of the telescope. If Donald gets his wife kicked out of the country, he’ll probably claim any prenup is null and void. Then he can go pursue his next future ex-wife.
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That’s Malaria’s problem. She arrived 2 years before meeting FatAss.
Unless there’s explicitly a clause in the prenup re: nationality or residency, shouldn’t be an issue.
But she might spill the beans on FatAss, which would be fun. (Yes, wishful thinking, I know.)
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As awful as this is, you are correct: this is just a step on the way to their ultimate goal, which is to decide, ultimately, who deserves citizenship and the right to vote. They have an “enemies list” that consists of over half the population, and they’re just going to keep chipping away at it, removing naturalized citizens first, then everyone else they don’t want here. Don’t be surprised if there’s a push for a special de-naturalization immigration court stacked with MAGA judges. That might be Emil Bove’s ultimate landing place; he’d be perfect for it, if he’s not disbarred . . . which is only part of what he deserves.
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The government can only do this in specific situations. It must prove someone “illegally procured” citizenship by not meeting the requirements, or that they lied or hid important facts during the citizenship process.
You mean like Melania?
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But we’ve seen MAGAts directly and indirectly via spouses or parents caught up in detentions and deportations but still hold to their Dear Leader, so personally I have little to no faith that they are capable of learning. At least not quickly.
“De-MAGA-fication” of the US is going to be a long and brutal process, methinks.
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“It left open only cases involving fraud during the citizenship process.”
Yep. And now you know why DOGE and Palantir have all the data.
So they can change it.
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This isn’t about de-citizenizing people. It’s about de-voterizing them.
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This policy effectively creates two different types of American citizens. Native-born Americans never have to worry about losing their citizenship, no matter what they do. But naturalized Americans face ongoing vulnerability that can last their entire lives.
The writers apparently haven’t been following the Trump regime attacks on birthright citizenship. If those are allowed to go through, native-born Americans will absolutely have to worry about losing their citizenship, even if they had citizen parents.
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Next up: stripping citizenship from those born here! It’s coming, folks, you know it is.
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Won’t apply to him unless he continues to tick off the First Felon.
ETA: not to Melania either unless she divorced him and takes Barron to Slovenia.
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Until the Third Reich, German Jews considered themselves Germans first.
Until they woke up one day and suddenly discovered they weren’t any longer.
I think we are all learning that “it can’t happen here” is an outdated belief.
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They might have to declare the U.S. a Christian country first. That way they can go after all the nones. They (we) are among the people likely to oppose Mango Mussolini. Then move on to people with Master’s degrees and Ph.Ds. Or switch the order as it pleases them.
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Native-born Americans never have to worry about losing their citizenship, no matter what they do.
Um, yeah, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
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As I read Talalazfar post, this is a move by Republicans to make American citizenship based on loyalty to Trump and the GOP.
That is what Trump and Republicans are doing in regard to determining who is and is not a citizen is subjective, up to the whims of politics. Also, Republicans love make “slippery slope” arguments which is why why we can’t have basic gun safety, there is no more danger of a slippery slope when we start subjectively determing who is and is not a citizen.
I also completely agree that there must be a price to pay for this lawlessness. The failure of making Republicans pay a political price from everything like stealing elections to incompetence allowing 911 to lying America into war to wrecking the economy to incompetence allowing a worldwide pandemic to trying to overthrow the Government is why were are where we are. So long as Democrats hold themselves to higher standard than they hold Republicans the situation will only get worse.
That said, we need to talk about what getting worse means, the slippery slope. If they can take citizenship away from naturalized citizens and from those born in America to parents not born in America, what will stop them from going back to grandparents. I don’t know if my father’s parents ever became citizens as one died in 1928 and the other in 1934. My maternal grandmother was brought here by her parents at the age of 8 and while she became a citizen who knows what errors were made by her parents on their immigration forms or she made when becoming a citizen. My mother’s father came here by himself at the age of 16 and 5 years later was sent back to Europe as an American soldier in WW1. While my maternal grandmother spoke English as well as anyone ever, my maternal grandfather spoke many languages and you could debate if English was one of them. I would be amazed if his immigration forms or citizen application was not riddled with errors.
The point is if subjectively you can question a person’s citizenship because of their parents not being born in America, why not grandparents?
Or as I read Talalazfar post, this is a move by Republicans to make American citizenship based on loyalty to Trump and the GOP.
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As far as I know, before the 1924 immigration acts, it was fairly simple to obtain citizenship. First, file a Declaration of Intention, then the Petition for Naturalization. There was only the most basic information on the forms: name, address, date of arrival. Here’s an example from my paternal grandfather:
The documents are indexed and can be searched on FamilySearch.org for free.
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US citizenship used to be a prized goal for people immigrating. Trump just ruining one more thing that the United States should be proud of.
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