Criminal denaturalization. A review of 2017-18 cases on PACER identified 102 criminal denaturalization cases, which account for 60.71% of all cases filed under either statute. Based on
information received from practitioners and historical records reviewed in researching this
report, the number of criminal cases filed appears to be rising, as most cases brought for the
past 50 years have been civil denaturalizations developed under the auspices of specific
sections of the Department of Justice with relatively narrow institutional mandates.163
Access to information. Of the 168 cases reviewed through PACER, over 77%, including all civil
cases, were either completely blocked online or contained documents that were inaccessible
online. To obtain relevant records for analysis, the Justice Initiative retrieved files in-person.
Denaturalization Cases Identified by the Justice Initiative, 2017-18:
2017
28
2018
45
Civil
85
57
83
38
Criminal
Country of origin information
Data on country of origin listed for defendants in court documents is presented below, with the
Justice Initiative’s analysis of each country’s nationality and immigration laws to assess the risk
that, through denaturalization, the defendant would be rendered stateless. Of the six countries
most represented, four posed a significant risk of statelessness.
Mexico
18 cases
Haiti
12 cases
Statelessness Risk
46
Pakistan
7 cases
Nigeria
8 cases
Possible Statelessness Risk
India
17 cases
Bangladesh
8 cases
Low Statelessness Risk
UNMAKING AMERICANS
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