Markey Statement on Reports That Trump Administration Will Escalate Cruel Denaturalization Efforts

Washington (December 18, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement in response to reports that the Trump administration will escalate denaturalization efforts, the latest in a cruel and callous slew of attacks on immigrants and their rights to citizenship.

"The Trump administration's latest anti-immigrant attack is xenophobia disguised as policy. It is disgusting and cruel to revoke the citizenship of Americans who have called this country home for years. All American citizens--regardless of where they were born-deserve all of our nation's constitutional protections. They do not deserve to be used as political pawns in Trump's anti-immigrant game. Denaturalization is nothing more than a naked attempt to undermine voting rights and diminish immigrants' voting power.

"In America, second class citizenship cannot exist. Trump's action is a fundamental betrayal of America's promise, and I will not stand to see this cruelty take place. This is not only an attack on our immigrant communities, but on the very foundation of America."

Senator Markey has been holding the Trump administration accountable for its violations of people's constitutional rights and gross weaponization of immigration enforcement.

• Today, Senator Markey introduced the Naturalization and Oath Ceremony Protection Act, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to ensure that individuals who have gone through the naturalization process and received approval to become U.S. citizens are not denied their naturalization ceremony and oath-taking.
• On December 17, Senator Markey wrote to the Boston Acting Field Office Director following his inspection of the Burlington ICE facility, to demand answers about the treatment of people detained in the ICE field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the aggressive enforcement tactics ICE has employed in immigrant communities.
• On December 12, after his visit to the Burlington ICE facility, Senator Markey held a press conference with immigrant rights leaders at Faneuil Hall to denounce Donald Trump's racist and xenophobic immigration policies and provide more details on his ongoing oversight work.
• On November 24, Senator Markey wrote to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney S. Scott, urging the agency to immediately cease using a system of license plate readers and predictive algorithms to monitor the movements of individual Americans. CBP is reportedly using the system to "identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious."
• On November 3, Senator Markey wrote to Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons, requesting ICE to cease the use of their biometric phone application Mobile Fortify after receiving no response to his September 11 letter.
• On April 22, Senator Markey and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Jim McGovern (MA-02), along with Representative Bennie Thompson (MS-02), Ranking Member of House Committee on Homeland Security, and Representative Troy Carter (LA-02) visited the Louisiana ICE facility where Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was being held, as well as another ICE facility holding Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.

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