alt Hacker NewsSo, I have a wife who just got her citizenship. We're very happy about that.
Concerning, though, is the current presidential administration's talk of trying to do large-scale denaturalization of citizens.
I know you don't have the ability to read minds, but would you care to hazard a guess to much of this is the president just blowing smokes or how worried I should be?
Replies
The President isn't blowing smoke - denaturalization efforts are going to increase - but there still has to be a reason, such as fraud or misrepresentation in getting her green card or citizenship or her failure to disclose a material fact in one of these processes. But absent something like this, I wouldn't worry at all.
(not Peter.)
she can only be denaturalized if:
1. she lied or concealed any past convictions (or maybe other information) on her visa/GC/citizenship application. in the past they only went after serious omissions like felonies, but now they'll go over any minor mistake with a fine-tooth comb. courts have held in the past that such omissions must have material significance to the decision (e.g. lying about a degree obtained, but not a typo about graduation year.)
2. she joins the Communist party or another totalitarian party within 5 years of becoming a citizen. expect them to interpret this broadly (e.g. supporting causes rather than officially joining, counting DSA as "totalitarian.") she should keep her head down, unfortunately.
Source: https://immigrationforum.org/article/denaturalization-fact-s...
(Not Peter, not a lawyer)
It is hard not to be moderately worried, since the administration has already made concrete attacks on citizenship pathways, immigrants and legal residents. Most notably, it's targeted birthright citizenship via executive order, tried to push through the power to unilaterally revoke green cards, and arbitrarily cancelling the ability of universities to host foreign students.
More importantly, successful legal challenges to these efforts are being vacated or reversed by the Supreme Court. That means the administration's attempts aren't being fully checked by balances.
You should take the rhetoric fairly seriously. There is no good-faith explanation for this pattern of attacking people who have gone through the process faithfully, and no credible ongoing efforts to prevent those happening.