Last week, the Justice Department announced that it would prioritize “denaturalization” cases in its deportation efforts, threatening to revoke citizenship for certain naturalized U.S. citizens.
While the Justice Department memo indicates that citizens who have committed crimes would be subject to denaturalization, President Donald Trump has recently targeted the citizenship status of specific political enemies. These include Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, as well as billionaire Elon Musk. Last month, Florida’s attorney general posted “deport and denaturalize” in reference to Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar.
The Justice Department memo indicates that naturalized U.S. citizens could face denaturalization if they “pose a danger to national security” — a justification the Trump administration has used to target pro-Palestinian speech.
New Data for Progress polling finds that voters generally do not support the denaturalization or deportation of U.S. citizens, even in the instance of serious crimes.
When asked whether the president should have the authority to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens, 70% of voters, including a majority of Independents and half of Republicans, say that the president should not have this power.
Previous Data for Progress polling has found that voters think deportation cases should be primarily handled by the courts, and they are divided over whether the president should have the authority to deport individuals.
Overall, voters do not want U.S. citizens to be deported, even if they have committed a serious crime. Voters oppose the U.S. government deporting naturalized U.S. citizens by a -20-point margin and U.S.-born citizens by a -57-point margin.
By a 12-point margin, a majority of voters believe that Trump will attempt to deport his political enemies, including those who are U.S. citizens. This includes a majority of Democrats (75%) and Independents (52%).
While only half of Republicans think the president should have the power to denaturalize U.S. citizens, they largely do not think that Trump will attempt to target specific U.S. citizens with deportation.
Overall, these results indicate that President Trump’s threats to denaturalize U.S. citizens, even for serious crimes, are not in line with public opinion.
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Cross-posted from Data for Progress. Donate to their work here
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