Donald Trump’s desire for a mass deportation program for about 11 million undocumented migrants in the US (he says the number is much bigger) is well known. According to some polling, around 54% of US citizens support such a program even if they have no idea how it would be implemented, how it may affect them or what it would cost. Less well known is Trump’s denaturalisation or “remigration” program.
Denaturalisation and remigration
In February 2020, the former Trump Administration created a Denaturalisation Section in the Department of Justice (most likely at the behest of Trump’s immigration adviser Stephen Miller). The stated role of the Section was “to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalisation”. Denaturalisation cases require the government to show that a defendant’s naturalisation was “illegally procured” or “procured by concealment of a material fact or by wilful misrepresentation…” 8 U.S.C. § 1451.
The number of “denaturalisation” cases is a few dozen over the last decade.
But Trump may want to take things much further.
In a Twitter post on 25 September, he said that he would “return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration)”. Trump’s specific use of the term........