New FOIA Requests Seek Records on Denaturalization Quotas, DOJ–USCIS Coordination, Senior DOJ Communications, and Implementation of Executive Orders
Washington, D.C. — Democracy Forward filed a sweeping set of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records that could reveal how the Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing the federal government to denaturalize U.S. citizens. The requests target multiple components of the U.S. Department of Justice — including senior leadership offices — and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and seek communications, policies, guidance, and agreements related to denaturalization, including whether the administration has imposed quotas, targets, or monthly benchmarks for taking citizenship away from Americans.
The FOIA requests seek records concerning internal communications among senior officials, coordination between USCIS and DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, the operation and staffing of denaturalization units, and implementation of Executive Order 14161, which directs the federal government to direct resources to identifying and pursuing denaturalization cases. The requests also seek records regarding “Operation Second Look,” a DHS initiative focused on reviewing, investigating, and potentially denaturalizing U.S. citizens. Those requests include enforcement priorities, referrals, and the legal theories used to revisit naturalization decisions finalized years and sometimes decades ago. In addition, Democracy Forward is seeking communications from senior DOJ officials to determine how high-level DOJ leadership has discussed, directed, or coordinated denaturalization efforts and related enforcement actions.
Denaturalization is an extraordinary and extreme government action with profound constitutional consequences. Recent news reporting has raised alarm that this administration is treating denaturalization as a political tactic rather than a limited legal remedy, prompting urgent questions about transparency, fairness, and abuse of power.
“U.S. citizenship cannot— and should not—be revisited whenever political winds shift,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The idea that the administration may be quietly building quotas, tracking numbers, and coordinating behind closed doors to strip Americans of their citizenship should alarm every one of us. Our team at Democracy Forward is demanding the truth because no administration gets to rewrite, in the shadows, what it means to be an American. And the president doesn’t have the authority to decimate the Statue of Liberty’s promise that this nation’s heart is open to freedom-seeking people. We will continue to use every legal tool available to protect constitutional rights and to ensure that naturalization in the United States remains secure, equal, and governed by the people through the rule of law.”
Democracy Forward is seeking these records to ensure the public understands how the administration is exercising, and potentially abusing, its authority, and to expose whether denaturalization efforts are being driven by ideology rather than law.
Read the FOIA requests here.
A Spanish version of this press release is available here.
