President Donald Trump is intensifying his stance against former enemies by repeatedly raising the drastic card of deportation.
The targets are Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and Zohran Mamdani, a New York State Assembly member who recently won the Democratic primary for New York mayor.
According to the Associated Press (AP) on the 2nd (local time), President Trump declared that he would 'arrest' Assembly member Mamdani if he obstructs the work of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
When asked by reporters the day before whether Musk would be deported to South Africa, Trump said, 'I don't know,' but added that 'we have to look at the possibility of deportation.'
Both Mamdani and Musk are immigrants who were born abroad and later naturalized in the United States. For this reason, Trump's comments have escalated into a legal debate over whether the president can strip naturalized citizens of their nationality and deport them.
Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. He grew up between an engineer father and a model mother from Canada. He moved to Canada in the year he turned 17, following his mother's nationality.
Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. in 1992, stepping onto American soil. After graduation, he remained in Silicon Valley on a professional employment visa (H-1B) and successfully started several companies. Then, in 2002, he finally obtained U.S. citizenship.
Assembly member Mamdani, who is 33 years old this year, was born in 1991 in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents who are academicians. His father is Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and his mother is Mira Nair, a world-renowned film director. He moved to New York with his family at the age of 7 and grew up there. He acquired U.S. citizenship in 2018. Identifying as a 'democratic socialist,' he has recently caused a surprise by defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor.
Once a 'first buddy' of Trump, Musk turned into an enemy after publicly opposing key legislative initiatives of the Trump administration. Their relationship has become irreparable. Mamdani is a prominent progressive politician who has consistently criticized the immigration policies of the Trump administration.
Experts emphasize that denaturalization, or 'denaturalization,' is a strict judicial process that can only occur if the Department of Justice successfully files a lawsuit in federal court, rather than through a presidential executive order.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution adopts 'jus soli,' granting citizenship to all born in the U.S. It also guarantees nearly equivalent rights to naturalized citizens who have gone through legal processes.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, to revoke naturalization, it must be proven that there were explicit disqualifications during the naturalization process. This is limited to cases where significant facts were intentionally concealed or false statements were made during the application process.
Specifically, this refers to instances where facts that affect naturalization eligibility were concealed, such as links to terrorist organizations, involvement in war crimes or human rights abuses, serious criminal records, or sham marriages.
Quoting experts, Al Jazeera reported that 'having different political views cannot be grounds for denaturalization,' adding, 'The most recent case of denaturalization was that of Elliott Duke, a British citizen who lost his citizenship after being convicted on June 13 for possession and distribution of child sexual exploitation materials.'
In the past, cases of denaturalization occurred frequently in the U.S. Statistics show that from 1907 to 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court issued denaturalization rulings for about 22,000 people over 60 years.
However, the situation changed after the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Afroyim v. Rusk in 1967 that 'the government cannot strip a naturalized person's citizenship without clear fraudulent behavior.'
Since that ruling, fewer than 150 individuals have had their naturalization revoked in the past 60 years. Most of those were either war criminals who concealed their Nazi affiliations or individuals who manipulated documents.
Steven Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell University, said in an interview with Reuters, 'Citizenship is not a gift granted by the president; it is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution,' stating that 'the very idea that a president can deport critics is a dangerous notion that threatens the foundation of the American legal system.'