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Donald Trump won the presidency in part on promises to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records. But his earliest executive orders—trying to undo birthright citizenship, suspending critical refugee programs—made clear he wants to attack legal immigrants, too. In our new series, Who Gets to Be American This Week?, we’ll track the Trump administration’s attempts to exclude an ever-growing number of people from the American experiment. 

As if the past few weeks of immigration-related breaking news weren’t bleak enough, this week President Donald Trump said he’d like to imprison U.S. citizens outside of the country. The idea involves relying upon El Salvador yet again, this administration’s partner in lawless deportations. And speaking of U.S. citizens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lured a pro-Palestinian activist from Columbia University to an immigration office for a citizenship interview—he’s held a green card for 10 years—only to arrest him upon arrival.

Here’s the immigration news we’re keeping an eye on this week.

Trump Is Considering Denaturalizing U.S. Citizens

Among the slew of executive orders Trump signed on Inauguration Day, he included a reference to the Department of Justice’s Denaturalization Section. Established during his first term in the White House, it was meant to target people who “illegally obtained naturalization.” It seems like Trump wants to take that even further—on Monday, he told reporters he would love to deport “homegrown criminals” to El Salvador, which the U.S. is paying $6 million for one year to imprison immigrants it deports. (This is most likely illegal, though there are ways for Trump to try to get around that.)

Meanwhile unnamed sources “familiar with the matter” told Rolling Stone that the Trump administration has been discussing how they could “denaturalize American citizens and deport them to other countries, including El Salvador,” where hundreds of migrants were recently deported and imprisoned without due process under allegations that they are members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff to the president, said back in 2023 that under a second Trump administration, denaturalization efforts would be “turbocharged.”

The federal government has to meet

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