How Many Naturalized U.S. Citizens Are There, and Are They Really Being Deported?

On the heels of President Donald Trump issuing full and partial suspensions of nationals from many other countries attempting to visit the U.S., tensions have escalated immensely regarding the immigration statuses of countless people throughout the U.S., including fully naturalized U.S. citizens.

With a portion of the Florida Everglades being turned into an immigrant detention center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," the political divide over immigrants in the U.S. is at a scorching hot level.

Is it true that the Trump Administration is deporting fully naturalized U.S. citizens, and if so, why and how have tensions gotten to this point? Are immigrants who are living in the U.S. outside of legal parameters being deported at the same rate as those who have gone through the labyrinthine and exhausting process of becoming naturalized citizens?

We address these difficult questions, and much more, below so that you can better understand the current state of immigrant detention in the U.S.

According to the most recent data from a 2025 report by the Migration Policy Institute, nearly "25 million immigrants were naturalized U.S. citizens as of 2023, accounting for 7% of the total U.S. population."

According to the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website, in the last decade alone, "USCIS welcomed more than 7.9 million naturalized citizens into the fabric of our nation."

Data is also available to break down further how many citizens became naturalized over the last few years.

Citing the most recent data USCIS has available, USCIS acknowledged 818,500 naturalized U.S. citizens in fiscal year 2024, bringing the most recent total across the previous three years to 2.6 million newly naturalized citizens.

Yes, the United States Department of Justice has been ordered by the Trump administration to begin "aggressively prioritizing efforts to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship," according to an NPR report. Attorneys within the Department of Justice are being instructed to focus on the denaturalization process for naturalized citizens who committed various crimes.

Per a publicly available June 11 memo from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate addressed to "All Civil Division Employees" of the U.S. Department of Justice, "The Department of Justice may institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either 'illegally procured' naturalization or procured naturalization by 'concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.'"

The memo further outlines the nature of criminals being targeted.

Shumate cites "the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to U.S. soil or traveling internationally on a U.S. passport."

The memo then proceeds to list 10 different categories of cases through which the Civil Division of the Department of Justice must prioritize for denaturalization proceedings.

Such categories include those who commit human rights violations and war crimes; those who engage in human trafficking; those who are part of drug cartels; and other various heinous crimes.