II. DENATURALIZATION: A RADICAL MEASURE IN
THE HANDS OF ZEALOTS
“To take away a man’s citizenship deprives him of a right no less precious than
life or liberty, indeed of one which today comprehends those rights and
almost all others.”
Justice Wiley B. Rutledge, Klapprott v. United States (concurring opinion, 1949)
Introduction
President Trump has repeatedly disparaged unauthorized immigrants using derogatory and
dehumanizing language.157 As a candidate, he promised to “begin moving them out, Day 1…[in
my] first hour in office, those people are gone.”158 Despite the president’s expressions of support
for “legal immigration,” his administration’s policies and practices signal otherwise. His
administration has granted fewer visas, aggressively pursued a Muslim ban, drastically
reduced refugee admissions, terminated the status of hundreds of thousands of temporary
protected status (TPS) residents, proposed a regulation that would reject petitions for green
cards from those who use public benefits, turned asylum seekers away at ports of entry, and
42
UNMAKING AMERICANS
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