While a public debate rages over how aggressively the federal government should enforce deportations, the Department of Justice recently took a quiet but consequential step toward restoring integrity to America’s immigration system.

On May 8, federal prosecutors filed denaturalization actions in courts across the country against 12 naturalized U.S. citizens. The grounds for the actions could not be more serious: concealing material support for terrorist groups, committing war crimes, espionage, sexually abusing a minor, and other fraud committed during the naturalization process. One Iraqi national allegedly lied under oath about his role in leading an al-Qaeda cell and murdering police officers. Others concealed ties to al-Shabab or child sexual abuse. In short, the filings against the naturalized citizens claim they lied in order to obtain legal status in the United States.

This move to denaturalize fraudulent migrants smashes the hysterical narrative that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Justice Department are “targeting legal immigrants.” The reality is that law-abiding naturalized citizens who told the truth have nothing to fear. What Illegal Immigration, Inc. wants is yet more violations of our laws to be overlooked.   

Denaturalization is not new, nor is it punishment. It is a long-standing civil remedy in U.S. immigration law, which allows the government to revoke citizenship if it was “illegally procured” or obtained “by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” The Supreme Court has long upheld this authority, recognizing that citizenship is not a right but a solemn contract. When someone lies on his or her application—about criminal history, terrorist affiliations, or war crimes—that person was never truly qualified. Denaturalization is simply correcting the record.

Last week’s cases were the first wave of a larger, overdue effort. The Justice Department is assigning prosecutors from 39 U.S. attorneys’ offices to handle the workload, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is referring 100–200 viable cases monthly. That pace sounds aggressive until you remember that there are hundreds of thousands of naturalized citizens who may have hidden disqualifying facts and that, consequently, terrorists, gang members, and predators walk free. Denaturalization is not anti-immigrant. It is the ultimate pro-legal-immigration policy by defending the value of citizenship by ensuring it is earned honestly.

Historically, denaturalization has been rare—about 11 cases per year from 1990 to 2017—and reserved for the worst offenders: Nazi war criminals, terrorists, and major fraudsters. The first Trump administration increased this rate modestly, to roughly 42 cases annually, but it dropped in the Biden years. Now, with better data-sharing between USCIS, DHS, and law enforcement, and the necessary political will from the White House, officials can finally act on thousands of flagged files that used to sit dormant. The goal is not to target legal immigrants but to hold those who gained legal status via fraud accountable so they can face the consequences they deserve. Honest applicants should know the system rewards truth, while cheaters will eventually be held accountable.

The anti-borders activists have rushed to frame the denaturalization actions and the broader Trump administration push identifying 384 other potential cases as an assault on “legal immigrants.” That claim, like the many other hysterical charges against immigration enforcement, collapses under basic logic. These individuals were never “legal” in the honest sense of the word. They obtained status through fraud, the same fundamental violation that renders an illegal alien’s presence unlawful. The only difference between them is method: one crosses the border without permission and often steals someone else’s identity; the other completes the naturalization process by lying. Both undermine the rule of law, and both forfeit any claim to remain in the country.  

Why does this matter? A naturalized citizen who concealed al-Qaeda leadership or al-Shabab support can travel on a U.S. passport, access sensitive jobs, or sponsor family members. A war criminal or child abuser enjoys the full rights of citizenship while their victims’ families live with the consequences.

Allowing such fraud to stand destroys the legitimacy of legal immigration—the very system anti-borders radicals claim to champion. It’s bad enough that Joe Biden and his predecessors let millions of aliens into the country illegally. The last thing we need now is untold numbers of terrorists and violent criminals living among us as supposedly legal immigrants.  

Another criticism of denaturalization is that it will have a “chilling effect” on immigrant communities, but the real chill comes from fraud itself. Restoring consequences sends the opposite message: Play by the rules and citizenship is possible. Lie, and you were never entitled to it in the first place.

Critics can howl that enforcement is somehow cruel. But cruelty is letting fraudsters keep the benefits of a system they cheated. Reining in our out-of-control immigration system is about much more than securing the border and deporting those here illegally. It is also about closing the many gaps in our legal immigration processes. Denaturalization delivers exactly that. It is not overreach, but overdue accountability.