The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not distinguish between citizens on the basis of citizenship acquisition. U.S. citizens “born or naturalized in the United States” appear to hold the same rights and the same quality of citizenship. The clause states: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The process of denaturalization only applies to U.S. citizens who acquired citizenship through naturalization.177 A person who acquired citizenship by birth cannot be stripped of citizenship. The federal courts have rationalized this disparity by conceptualizing denaturalization as a corrective administrative action, rather than a punishment.178 Only Article III federal courts have authority to denaturalize American citizens via either civil or criminal denaturalization procedures.179 If denaturalized, a citizen’s legal status automatically reverts to legal permanent residency, but this does not preclude USCIS from further investigations and actions to revoke benefits and pursue removal.180 It is unclear how many individuals were deported as a result of being denaturalized in the cases reviewed by the Justice Initiative, as this information is neither contained in court documents, nor publicly available.181 GROUNDS FOR DENATURALIZATION Naturalized citizens can be denaturalized through either civil or criminal processes, with different grounds for denaturalization in the relevant statutory language: • Civil denaturalization may be sought where citizenship was (A) “procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,” or (B) “illegally procured” (meaning the individual did not meet the statutory requirements for naturalization).182 • Criminal denaturalization may be sought if citizenship was knowingly procured “unlawfully” for one’s self or for another. This statute also sanctions attempted procurement.183 50 UNMAKING AMERICANS