As gratifying as it was to see the front-page story about the swearing in of new American citizens in the July 7 Gazette there continue to be risks and threats to newly naturalized American citizens. In a June 11 Department of Justice memo signed by the attorney general, enforcement of “denaturalization laws” has been made a priority of the Trump administration.
Denaturalization, or the revocation of citizenship is a real, seldom used legal process to remove the citizenship of individuals who have either committed fraud or failure to disclose information during the naturalization process. Under President Trump, federal attorneys have been instructed to pursue denaturalization in all cases permitted by law. Heightened scrutiny how a person became a citizen or even what they have done after can result in an investigation that finds the new citizen “undesirable” in some way. This could apply to past behavior or even new behavior.
So if you are a naturalized citizen; exercising your “rights” may come at some risk if the government decides to investigate. Apparently citizenship revocation is a civil court procedure and not a criminal court procedure so no due process is required. Just another example of our government moving toward fascism,
Joel Levine
Easthampton