DOJ moves to strip citizenship from 40 people

Driving the news: The DOJ filed 40 denaturalization actions in district courts spanning coast to coast between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2, according to a Monday statement.

• "Every single one of these individuals lied their way into U.S. citizenship," Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in a statement.

Context: Denaturalization cases have a high burden of proof, and to revoke someone's citizenship, the DOJ must file a revocation action in federal district court.

• The general grounds for revocation, per U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are illegal procurement of naturalized citizenship or lying to get it.
• "For civil revocation of naturalization, the burden of proof is clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt," per USCIS.

Zoom in: Individuals named in Monday's statement had been convicted of or pleaded guilty to an array of offenses, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, sexual abuse of a minor and aggravated sodomy.

What we're watching: A DOJ spokesperson told Axios the department has filed more than 200 denaturalization complaints to date "and remains on track to meet its objectives, with many more actions to come."

• In April, the New York Times reported that the DOJ had identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship the department wanted to revoke.
• The following month, Axios' Brittany Gibson reported that USCIS lawyers had been temporarily moved to U.S. attorneys' offices to work on denaturalization cases.

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Editor's note: This story has been updated to add comment from the Justice Department.