Which dual nationals have had U.S. citizenship revoked since 2015 and why?
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Executive summary
Since 2015 there is no compiled list in the sources provided of dual nationals who had U.S. citizenship revoked; available reporting and official guidance instead describes legal paths to lose U.S. nationality (renunciation, relinquishment, denaturalization) and notes that involuntary revocation is rare and legally constrained [1] [2] [3]. The most-cited grounds across sources are voluntary acts showing intent to relinquish (oath to a foreign state, naturalizing elsewhere, military service for a hostile force), and fraud in obtaining naturalization is the main basis for court‑upheld denaturalizations [4] [2] [3].
1. What federal law actually allows — and what it doesn’t
U.S. law recognizes several ways a person can cease to be a U.S. national: voluntary renunciation before a consular officer, performing certain “expatriating acts” with the specific intent to relinquish nationality, administrative certificates of loss of nationality (CLNs), and denaturalization by court order where citizenship was obtained by fraud or concealment. The Department of State adjudicates CLNs for acts listed in INA §349 and must approve or deny properly submitted requests [1] [2]. The State Department projected thousands of renunciations and several hundred non‑renunciatory relinquishments in 2015, underscoring that many losses are voluntary or administrative rather than forcible revocations [3].
2. Which acts commonly trigger loss of nationality
Sources consistently list a short set of triggers: voluntarily becoming a naturalized citizen of another country, taking an oath of allegiance to a foreign state, serving in a foreign military (especially for a state at war with the U.S.), and committing fraud to obtain naturalization; crucially, the person’s intent matters for many grounds. The State Department’s procedures and guidance emphasize intent and fact‑specific adjudication before issuing a CLN [1] [4] [2].
3. Denaturalization: the primary route for involuntary loss
When the government seeks to take citizenship away from naturalized Americans, it uses denaturalization lawsuits based on fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment during the naturalization process. Legal commentators and USCIS policy materials point to a recent federal “denaturalization task force” focus on serious fraud cases rather than broad campaigns to strip citizenship [2] [5]. The Immigrant’s Journal recounts that courts have upheld revocations where fraud was proven, showing the judiciary will sustain denaturalization in specific, provable misconduct cases [4].
4. Historical and constitutional limits on forced expatriation
The Supreme Court’s decisions — notably Afroyim v. Rusk and subsequent rulings cited in scholarly and historical summaries — constrain involuntary expatriation: the government generally cannot strip a citizen without evidence of voluntary intent to relinquish nationality or proof of fraud in obtaining it [6] [4]. Scholars cited in the sources note that revocation as public policy is associated historically with more authoritarian regimes and that U.S. law has moved toward protecting citizenship against involuntary removal [7] [6].
5. What the sources do not provide — the missing names
None of the supplied sources list individual dual nationals whose U.S. citizenship was revoked since 2015. They provide legal frameworks, statistics on renunciations and relinquishments, and case‑law examples in older precedent, but do not compile post‑2015 names or a roster of specific revocations (available sources do not mention specific individuals revoked since 2015) [3] [4] [1].
6. Politics, proposals and public concern
Commentary and advocacy pieces highlight political proposals and worries about expansion of revocation powers — for example, recent legislative proposals to penalize dual citizenship drew critical legal commentary for raising constitutional and practical problems — but these are proposals and critiques, not evidence of executed revocations of dual nationals by name [8] [9]. Law‑firm and advocacy writeups warn that security programs (like Global Entry) may subject dual nationals to extra scrutiny, yet that is administrative exclusion, not citizenship termination [10].
7. How to verify any specific claim
To verify whether a named dual national lost U.S. citizenship since 2015, consult primary sources the Department of State (Bureau of Consular Affairs) issues (Certificates of Loss of Nationality), federal court denaturalization dockets, or contemporaneous reporting of court judgments. The State Department’s relinquishment guidance describes the administrative record‑keeping and approval process for CLNs [1] [3]. The sources provided do not include those primary CLNs or court judgments for specific individuals.
Limitations: this account uses only the documents you supplied and therefore cannot confirm or deny any particular person’s loss of citizenship beyond what those sources state (limitation: available sources do not mention individual revocations since 2015) [4] [1] [3]. When names or court dockets are provided, the legal route (denaturalization vs. voluntary relinquishment) must be identified from primary court or State Department records to determine the reason.