US President Donald Trump and officers from his administration have hinted that they may take into account revoking the US citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, New York Metropolis’s Democratic mayoral candidate.
Individually, Trump stated former aide Elon Musk must “shut up store and head again residence to South Africa” amid a row over his tax breaks and Trump’s narrowly passed spending bill.
However would the Trump administration have the ability to revoke the citizenship of Mamdani and Musk, each foreign-born, naturalised residents of the US?
What’s the immigration standing of Mamdani and Musk?
Mamdani, 33, was born within the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to ethnically Indian mother and father. He moved to New York on the age of seven and have become a naturalised US citizen in 2018.
Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa to a Canadian mom and South African father. On the age of 17, he moved to Canada of the place he’s additionally a citizen. In 1992, he moved to the US to review on the College of Pennsylvania. He turned a naturalised US citizen in 2002, in keeping with a biography of him written in 2023 by journalist Walter Isaacson.
In October 2024, the Washington Submit reported that Musk started his profession within the US with out the right work authorisation, however Musk has denied this. “I used to be in actual fact allowed to work within the US,” Musk wrote in an X put up on the identical day the report was revealed. “I used to be on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B,” Musk wrote in one other put up. A J-1 visa is a short lived visa for international college students, whereas an H-1B is a short lived work visa.
To turn into naturalised as a US citizen, a person must be above the age of 18 and to have lived repeatedly within the US as a inexperienced card holder for 5 years, or three years if they’re married to a US citizen.
What has the Trump administration stated about Mamdani?
Andy Ogles, a Republican Tennessee consultant, wrote to Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi on June 26, asking for the Division of Justice to probe whether or not Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, needs to be topic to denaturalisation proceedings.
Posting a duplicate of the letter to Bondi on his X web page, Ogles wrote: “Zohran ‘little muhammad’ Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the nice Metropolis of New York. He must be DEPORTED. Which is why I’m calling for him to be topic to denaturalization proceedings.”
Ogles stated that the investigation needs to be carried out on the grounds that Mamdani might have procured US citizenship by way of “willful misrepresentation or concealment of fabric help for terrorism.”
The Tennessee Republican cited experiences, together with an article revealed within the New York Submit, stating that Mamdani expressed solidarity with “people convicted of terrorism-related offenses previous to turning into a US citizen.” Ogles stated that Mamdani rapped “Free the Holy Land 5 / My guys.”
“The Holy Land Basis was convicted in 2008 for offering materials help to Hamas, a delegated international terrorist group. Publicly praising the Basis’s convicted management as ‘my guys’ raises critical issues about whether or not Mr. Mamdani held affiliations or sympathies he did not disclose throughout the naturalization course of,” Ogles wrote in his letter to Bondi.
“Furthermore, Mr. Mamdani has not too long ago refused alternatives to reject the pro-terrorist rallying cry to ‘globalize the intifada’ a name to increase violent assaults on civilians to america and all over the world,” Ogles wrote.
Zohran “little muhammad” Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the nice Metropolis of New York. He must be DEPORTED. Which is why I’m calling for him to be topic to denaturalization proceedings.
Hooked up is my letter to @AGPamBondi. pic.twitter.com/RWCZm67VOr
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) June 26, 2025
Mamdani has additionally pledged to cease masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers “from deporting our neighbours”. When Trump was requested about this on Tuesday at a information convention, he stated that if Mamdani prevents ICE brokers from conducting deportation operations, “Properly, then, we’ll need to arrest him.”
“We don’t want a communist on this nation, but when we now have one, I’m going to be watching over him very rigorously on behalf of the nation,” Trump stated, including, “we’ll ship him cash, we’ll ship him all of the issues he must run the federal government.”
Trump continued, citing claims that Mamdani is within the US illegally, saying, “We’re going to take a look at the whole lot”. The president additionally voiced help for the present New York mayor, Eric Adams, who can be a member of the Democratic Social gathering.
How has Mamdani responded?
Mamdani posted an announcement on his X account in response to Trump’s feedback on Tuesday.
“The President of america simply threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not as a result of I’ve damaged any legislation however as a result of I’ll refuse to let ICE terrorize our metropolis,” Mamdani wrote in his assertion.
Mamdani additionally referred to as Trump’s reward of Adams “unsurprising”, including: “On the very second when MAGA Republicans are trying to destroy the social security internet, kick thousands and thousands of New Yorkers off of healthcare and enrich their billionaire donors on the expense of working households, it’s a scandal that Eric Adams echoes this President’s division, distraction and hate. Voters will resoundingly reject it in November.”
My assertion on Donald Trump’s risk to deport me and his reward for Eric Adams, who the President “helped out” of authorized accountability. https://t.co/m7pNcT2DFS pic.twitter.com/UcYakMx4lI
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) July 1, 2025
What has the Trump administration stated about Elon Musk?
Whereas the billionaire proprietor of Tesla and SpaceX was as soon as a key aide to Trump and a serious donor to his presidential marketing campaign final 12 months, Trump’s “Massive Lovely Invoice” has created a public rift between Trump and Musk.
Musk has repeatedly decried the invoice on-line and has threatened to type a new political party as a response to the invoice passing.
Musk stands to be affected by the finance invoice that the Senate narrowly handed on Tuesday, because it ends tax credit value as much as $7,500 for purchases of electrical autos (EVs) from September 30. This might considerably cut back client demand for EVs within the US.
In a Reality Social put up on Monday, Trump wrote, “With out subsidies, Elon would most likely have to shut up store and head again residence to South Africa. No extra Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electrical Automotive Manufacturing, and our Nation would save a FORTUNE.”
“Maybe we must always have DOGE take , exhausting, have a look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” Trump added, in reference to the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory physique geared toward boosting authorities effectivity and upgrading data expertise, that Musk fashioned and led at the beginning of Trump’s second administration, earlier than leaving on Could 30.
On Tuesday, when reporters requested Trump if he was going to deport Musk, he stated, “We’ll have to have a look. We would need to put DOGE on Elon.”
On what grounds can the US revoke citizenship for naturalised residents?
Underneath sure circumstances, US residents by naturalisation can lose their standing as residents. This course of can be referred to as denaturalisation.
This could occur if naturalised residents commit sure crimes, together with terrorism, conflict crimes, human rights violations, intercourse crimes or naturalisation fraud, which means they obtained their citizenship by way of fraud, misrepresentation or unlawful procurement.
On June 11, the Justice Division issued a memo stating that it could “prioritise denaturalisation” by instituting civil proceedings for folks “in the event that they both ‘illegally procured’ naturalization or procured naturalization by ‘concealment of a cloth truth or by willful misrepresentation’.”
The memo added: “The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all circumstances permitted by legislation and supported by the proof.”
A naturalised citizen may also lose their citizenship in the event that they commit an act of treason towards the US, or run for public workplace or be part of the navy of a international nation.
Most not too long ago, the Justice Division introduced on June 13 that UK citizen Elliott Duke, a convicted collector and distributor of kid sexual abuse materials, had been denaturalised. In a information launch, the Justice Division stated Duke enlisted within the US Military in 2012 and commenced receiving and sending youngster intercourse abuse materials on-line whereas serving in Germany. Duke didn’t record this crime in his naturalisation software in 2013. He was convicted of receipt and possession of kid pornography in 2014.
Might both Musk or Mamdani be denaturalised?
It isn’t seemingly, in keeping with specialists.
“Denaturalisation is restricted to circumstances the place the federal government can show materials fraud of their unique purposes,” stated Michael Kagan, professor of legislation at College of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“It’s uncommon and unlikely for both Musk or Mamdani. This seems to be irresponsible rhetoric designed to intimidate political opponents.”
What’s the historical past of denaturalisation within the US?
The US has revoked the citizenship of naturalised residents on totally different events over the previous few a long time.
Instances of denaturalisation have been extra frequent throughout the first half of the twentieth century whereas the 2 world wars and, later, the Chilly Struggle with the Soviet Union have been ongoing. Between 1926 and the mid-Forties, lots of of individuals have been denaturalised yearly, in keeping with political scientist Patrick Weil, writer of The Sovereign Citizen, revealed in 2017.
The US authorities often tried to denaturalise residents throughout the two “Crimson Scare” durations of 1917 to 1920 and 1947 to 1957, when the concern of communism was notably excessive within the US. Throughout this time, it was additionally very exhausting to acquire US citizenship by naturalisation.
Individuals who have been denaturalised on the time included communists and Nazi sympathisers. Two well-known circumstances have been:
- Emma Goldman, an anarchist activist who was born in Lithuania, which was then a part of the Russian Empire. Goldman migrated to the US in 1885. When World Struggle I broke out, she opposed US involvement and navy conscription. For this, she was jailed in 1917 for 2 years on the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson Metropolis. By the point of her launch, the hysteria round communism had taken type within the US and in 1919, she was denaturalised and deported to Soviet Russia.
- Paul Knauer was born in Germany and arrived within the US in 1925. He turned a citizen in 1937. In 1946, Knauer was denaturalised on the grounds that he hid his affiliation with the German-American Bund, an organisation thought of to advertise Nazi propaganda.
In 1967, the development for denaturalisation slowed down when the US Supreme Court docket dominated {that a} US citizen couldn’t be involuntarily disadvantaged of their citizenship except they met the particular standards of getting obtained naturalisation by fraud or of getting dedicated critical offences.
The ruling got here on the finish of a case involving Beys Afroyim, who was born in Poland and have become a naturalised US citizen in 1926. The US authorities tried to revoke his citizenship as a result of Afroyim had voted in an Israeli legislative election in 1951.
In ruling this, the Supreme Court docket repealed a US federal legislation which stated that US residents might lose their citizenship in the event that they vote in a international election.