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The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to strip more naturalized immigrants of their U.S. citizenship, with The New York Times reporting that officials are seeking 100 to 200 cases per month. The news comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case to decide the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship.

“During the first Trump administration, they had 25 [denaturalization] cases per year, and … for the 15 years before the first Trump administration, they had fewer than 15 cases per year,” says Mae Ngai, professor of Asian American studies and history at Columbia University. “So this is an incredible escalation.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to strip more naturalized immigrants of their U.S. citizenship. That’s according to a report in The New York Times, which found internal guidance issued this week to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices asked that they supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month in the next fiscal year. The Times reports it would represent a “massive escalation of denaturalization in the modern era.”

The news comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case to decide the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship.

To talk about all of this, as well as the latest threat by the Trump administration, that was issued last night, to end the visa diversity program, which leads to a green card for so many, we’re joined now by Mae Ngai, professor of Asian American studies and history at Columbia University. Much of her work focuses on immigration, citizenship and nationalism.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Professor Ngai. It’s great to have you with us. Let’s start off —

MAE NGAI: Thanks for having me, Amy. Great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain for people who don’t quite understand: What is it to be a naturalized citizen? And then, what does it mean that the Trump administration wants to revoke that citizenship from 100 to 200 people a month?

MAE NGAI: The United States has two kinds of citizens: those who are born in this country, who are automatically citizens by birth — that’s what we call birthright citizenship — and naturalized citizens, those people who are immigrants who can apply to become a citizen after they’ve been here for five years, take a test on civics, have no criminal record, etc.

The Constitution treats both kinds of citizens equally. Birthright citizens and naturalized citizens are treated the same under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. And we have naturalized close to 10 million people in the last 10 years, so there’s a large number of foreign-born Americans who are citizens of this country. Now, to give you some context —

AMY GOODMAN: The mayor-elect —

MAE NGAI: — on what does it mean to — yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: The mayor-elect of New York — right? — Zohran Mamdani, is a naturalized citizen. He was born in Uganda.

MAE NGAI:........

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