WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi.

The United States has more than 24 million naturalized citizens.

These are people who were born in other countries but have made America their home.

24 million naturalized citizens is basically one out of every 13 people in the United States.

Now, the Trump administration says it is prioritizing denaturalization, also known as stripping some of those people of their citizenship.

I mean, yeah, we have criminals that came into our country and they were naturalized maybe

through Biden or somebody that didn't know what they were doing.

If I have the power to do it, I'm not sure that I do, but if I do, I would denaturalize, absolutely.

That's President Trump speaking to reporters on Air Force One late last month. And back in June,

the U.S. Justice Department released a memo citing denaturalization as a top law enforcement priority.

So when and how can the United States government actually revoke citizenship?

And does Trump's claim about the danger posed by naturalized Americans really hold up?

Well, joining us first is Ahilan Arulanthantham.

He's a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School,

and co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA.

Welcome to On Point.

Thank you for having me, Magna.

Let's get straight to the president's sort of question that he said,

I don't know if I have the power as president to denaturalize.

Well, does he or does he not?

The power to denaturalize does exist in our law, but it's very, very limited.

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