Since taking office this past January, President Donald Trump has made deporting foreign criminals one of his highest priorities.

However, Trump has recently gone further by ordering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to strip citizenship from immigrants who have been convicted of certain crimes.

Memo calls for "pursuit of all viable denaturalization cases"

According to the New York Post, that plan was laid out in a memo authored last month by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.

"The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence," it states.

Shumate explained that the DOJ has identified multiple  "categories of priorities for denaturalization cases" in order to "promote the pursuit of all viable denaturalization cases."

This course of action is intended to "maintain the integrity of the naturalization system while simultaneously ensuring an appropriate allocation of resources."

Policy targets fraud artists, gang members, sex offenders and other criminals

Targets will include those "who pose a potential danger to national security, including those with a nexus to terrorism, espionage, or the unlawful export from the United States of sensitive goods, technology, or information raising national security concerns."

Former soldier stripped of citizenship over child pornography conviction

The Post pointed out that at least one individual has been successfully denaturalized since Shumate memorandum was issued.

Justice Department Secures Denaturalization of Convicted Distributor of Child Sexual Abuse Material Who Fraudulently Obtained U.S. Citizenshiphttps://t.co/30qJ3iuKgZ

— DOJ Civil Division (@DOJCivil) June 20, 2025

Elliott Duke is a British national who was convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography in 2014, one year after he was granted citizenship while serving in the U.S. Army.

Although Duke claimed on his citizenship application that he had never committed a crime for which he was not arrested, the DOJ learned that he began receiving and distributing sexual material involving children while he was stationed in Germany.