The Department of Justice is filing more denaturalization cases this year. That’s a process where the government petitions a federal court to strip someone of their American citizenship.
Court records obtained by the research group TRAC show the government filed 50 such cases in the month of July — including two in Arizona.
That’s the highest single-month number in recent history — TRAC’s analysis shows many states saw no cases filed for years at a time.
Only 125 cases were filed nationwide between last year and 2008, the year TRAC’s data begins. The two cases filed in Arizona last month are the only ones on record.
According to the Justice Department, some of its filings are against people accused of serious offenses like attempted murder. But, as TRAC reports, the agency’s August press release about the effort lists only 25 cases, rather than the 50 filed in July, and the actual number of cases could be higher.
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