You came from another country, and you want to become a U.S. citizen. There are a number of requirements.
You have to be a resident (green card) for 5 years, 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen, with continuous residence.
You have to have a good moral character, which includes not having "serious" criminal violations or other "issues." Donald Trump would fail.
You have to be able to read, write and speak "basic" English, and have a knowledge of U.S. history and government. Donald Trump would fail again.
You have to fill out form N-400, "Application for Naturalization," with the fee, $760 by paper, $710 online. You need to be interviewed by a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, officer. You must take the English and civics test and take the Oath of Alliegance to the U.S. at the Naturalization ceremony. The government has an explanation of it all on the USCIS website (16 page PDF). You can read the Oath of Allegiance here.
In the Oath, you swear to "support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." Trump would fail for a third time.
The Trump administration wants to use the specifics in 8 U.S.C.§ 1451 to be able to strip citizens of their citizenship at will. There is a legal procedure in court to revoke citizenship that has to be followed, and Trump wants to use the "moral" and "criminal" clauses as a weapon.
Zohran Mamdani has no criminal offenses, but he has the moral offense, to Trump, of being a communist. He's nothing of the sort. Socialism is not communism. But trumped up charges is what Trump wants to use to revoke Mamdani's citizenship. If a social media post supporting Palestinians can get you detained and deported, the DOJ can find something for Trump. The ACLU would be there in an instant, and the people that voted for Mamdani in New York City would rebel and call for Trump's ouster instead, like they haven't already.
The crime or moral crime they're trying to use against Mamdani is that he wrote and sang a rap song called "The Holy Land Five." Other than "Intifada" being in the lyrics, it's about men being accused of being Hamas sympathizers in a trial that took place years ago. The first trial ended in a hung jury, so they were tried again and sent to prison. The Holy Land Foundation the men ran was based in Richardson, Texas. In December, 2001, the Bush administration branded them a terrorist organization. They seized the assets and closed the organization down. The second trial has been criticized by groups like the Human Rights Watch as being thin on actual evidence, with it being comprised of anonymous and hearsay evidence. The use of it by the prosecutors was "constitutionally questionable." The five men received sentences from 15 to 65 years. So, the song "The Holy Land Five" is a protest song. People believe the five were railroaded in the wake of 9/11. Singing this song is being used as saying Mamdani is antisemetic. That "shows" poor moral character and grounds for revocation of his citizenship. It's funny that Trump just used the blatant antisemetic word "Shylock" on July 3rd at a rally populated by racist farmers who cheered Trump's partisan speech. They will find that the Big Ugly Bill they cheered on will put them out of business. It will be schadenfreude for us, but it means the conglomerate farms take over.
If Zohran Mamdani can't sing a song, which he wrote, and you can read the lyrics yourself, then we might as well kiss the First Amendment goodbye.
Elon Musk is a different case. He has been an admitted drug user, even doing it on camera, so the "moral" clause could be used. He also committed election fraud with bribing voters in two different elections. He was not charged at time because he was Trump's pet. He is no longer Trump's pet, and when Trump was asked about it recently about the possibility of deporting Musk he said he would have to look into that, or have someone look into it. I'm sure Pam Bondi was listening, or got the message. Musk, of course, has unlimited resources to fight the move, if it happens. There was also a grey area about Musk's immigration status and J-1 student visa that turned into a H1-B. That could also be a point of attack.
In 2020, Trump created a standalone division in the DOJ specifically to work on denaturalization. It was disbanded under the Biden administration. This time, instead of creating a new division, the whole Civil Rights division has been told to prioritize denaturalization "in all cases permitted by law," according to a DOJ memo.
But current and former DOJ officials who spoke to CNN said that beyond instructing lawyers to file as many denaturalization cases as possible, the memo is so broad that it could allow the justice department to invoke vague or unsubstantiated claims to expel people from the country.
Trump has publicly flirted with the notion of deporting American citizens he doesn't want in the country.
With Trump and the DOJ, nothing is off the table to get rid of opposition and immigrants. Bondi threatened to go after CNN because they reported about ICEBLOCK, a phone app that allows people to enter sightings of ICE agents so people stay away from the area. Bondi called that news reporting "obstruction of justice." This is about as insane as it can get. No, correct that. It will get worse if it is allowed to go on.
Read this article on NPR. It's about our government creating a nationwide database of every citizen and naturalized citizen. I think it's already been created with DOGE's break-ins at Social Security, the Office of Veteran Affairs, the IRS and any other agency that has It's claws into your life. Pick out targets using the database and then check their social media for anything negative about Trump, his policies, things that could be thought of as antisemetic or pro-Palestinian.
In a five page memo from Brett Shumate (PDF), Assistant Attorney General, he lays out the new Civil Division Enforcement Priorities. There are 10 new categories of people to be investigated to denaturalize. Before that was a section on "Ending Sanctuary Jurisdiction."
The lower courts are protecting America. The highest court, the Supreme Court, is constantly rolling over and letting Trump pat their belly. How is a nationwide injunction going to happen now that could stop Trump from misusing the law to take away citizenship?
Out of the 322 cases showing on Just Security today, how can the 14 cases against the Alien Enemies Act removals win for everybody? Now the cases only apply to the plaintiffs, and can't extend to the rest of the U.S. 4 cases on removal to El Salvador. 11 cases on Birthright Citizenship. 3 cases against punishment for immigration sanctuaries. 16 more cases on various immigration policies. 10 cases of Habeus Corpus and removal of protesters, including Mahdawi's case. And 2 cases against ICE on removal to third countries.
If Trump were to denaturalize Mamdani, that would keep him from taking office. But that's still wouldn't allow Trump to deport him. Taking away his citizenship means that he would revert to his last status, which was as a green card holder or lawful permanent resident.
Cases that have been pursued in the past usually relate to having hidden information about having a criminal record before applying for citizenship, during the process of qualifying for citizenship, and after getting it. Trump is trying to do more with the definition of "moral," what constitutes a "crime," and even a new definition of "issues."
So, watch out for denaturalization being used as a new tool by the Trump administration. It could happen to high visibility individuals like Mamdani and Musk, but it will start with those just important enough to expend the resources.
It will happen.
