Sponsor
Thomas Bryant Cotton
Senator · R-AR
Senator · R-AR
The bill expands the government's ability to denaturalize and prosecute immigration‑related fraud discovered long after naturalization—improving accountability and integrity but creating prolonged legal uncertainty, higher costs, and greater risk of unfair outcomes for long‑settled citizens and those accused of historical conduct.
Victims of immigration fraud and law enforcement: Allows denaturalization and criminal charges to be brought even when misconduct or fraud is discovered years after naturalization, making long-hidden fraud punishable and increasing accountability.
Department of Justice and federal prosecutors: Grants DOJ/US Attorneys broader authority to initiate denaturalization actions when misconduct is discovered later than five years after naturalization, enabling corrective action without an arbitrary time cutoff.
Victims of immigration fraud: Prevents perpetrators from escaping criminal accountability simply by waiting past a statute‑of‑limitations–style safe period, improving opportunities for redress.
Naturalized citizens and immigrant communities: Creates substantial legal uncertainty and exposes long‑settled citizens to denaturalization and criminal risk years after naturalization, raising serious due‑process and civil‑status stability concerns.
People accused of historical misconduct (immigrants and others): Enables prosecution and denaturalization long after the fact when evidence has degraded, making defense harder and increasing the risk of unfair or erroneous outcomes.
Naturalized individuals: Subjects long‑settled citizens to potentially substantial litigation costs and the risk of losing citizenship based on historical conduct discovered years later.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Removes a five‑year timing phrase from the naturalization‑revocation law and eliminates the ten‑year statute of limitations for prosecutions under 18 U.S.C. § 1425.
Makes it easier for the government to revoke a person’s U.S. citizenship and removes a time limit for prosecuting certain federal crimes involving unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization. The bill deletes a five‑year timing phrase from the revocation statute and adds unspecified new language to that provision, and it eliminates the ten‑year statute of limitations for prosecutions under the law that criminalizes unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization (section 1425).
Official title: Include any felony conviction as a ground for revocation of naturalization, to strike the 5-year limitation on the revocation of naturalization for membership in certain totalitarian or treasonous organizations, and to eliminate the 10-year statute of limitation for certain criminal penalties that would disqualify a person from naturalization.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by Thomas Bryant Cotton · Last progress March 17, 2026