DOJ moves to strip citizenship from 40 people

President Trump's Justice Department moved to revoke citizenship from 40 naturalized citizens accused of crimes in recent months, representing what Attorney General Todd Blanche called the "largest denaturalization effort in modern history." The big picture: The Trump administration has made denaturalization a priority, moving personnel to pursue more cases and setting a goal of 250 cases by this month. Driving the news: The DOJ filed 40 denaturalization actions in district courts spanning coast to coast between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2, according to a Monday statement. "Every single one of these individuals lied their way into U.S. citizenship," Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in a statement. Context: Denaturalization cases have a high burden of proof, and to revoke someone's citizenship, the DOJ must file a revocation action in federal district court. The general grounds for revocation, per U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are illegal procurement of naturalized citizenship or lying to get it. "For civil revocation of naturalization, the burden of proof is clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt," per USCIS. Zoom in: Individuals named in Monday's statement had been convicted of or pleaded guilty to an array of offenses, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, sexual abuse of a minor and aggravated sodomy. What we're watching: The DOJ did not immediately respond to Axios' request for specifics on how many actions had been filed since the start of the second Trump administration. In April, the New York Times reported that the DOJ had identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship the department wanted to revoke. The following month, Axios' Brittany Gibson reported that USCIS lawyers had been temporarily moved to U.S. attorneys' offices to work on denaturalization cases. Go deeper: Birthright citizenship decision gives advocates short-lived sigh of relief

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