When President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was looking toward denaturalizing immigrants who were “criminals,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seemed to think this was a profoundly batty idea.
“That was an unhinged statement by Donald Trump,” the New York Democrat said.
“He knows he doesn’t have the capacity to strip citizenship away. He’s behaving like a wannabe king. And the American people are rejecting that.”
NEW: I asked @hakeemjeffries about President Trump’s desire to denaturalize/strip US citizenship away from those who aren’t deemed a benefit to the US?
Jeffries: “That was an unhinged statement by Donald Trump. He knows he doesn’t have the capacity to strip citizenship away.…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 1, 2025
Two things are clear. First, he doesn’t have the capacity to do it — yet — for simple criminal behavior. Second, if he were acting like a wannabe king, he’d impose this by fiat. (Or, as former President Barack Obama once put it, with a “pen and a phone.”) And third, the American people might not reject that out of hand if and when they hear about Luqmaan Khan.
Khan, according to a media release from the Department of Justice, is a 25-year-old native of Pakistan who was stopped in his truck on Nov. 24 during a property check in Wilmington, Delaware. Inside his car, county police found pretty substantial evidence that the University of Delaware student had violence on his mind:
During their investigation, officers discovered in Khan’s vehicle a .357 caliber Glock handgun loaded with 27 rounds. The handgun had been inserted into a microplastic conversion firearm brace kit. Within the vehicle, officers also found all the following: (i) three more loaded, 27-round magazines (one in the storage slot of the conversion kit); (ii) a loaded Glock 9mm magazine; (iii) an armored ballistic plate; and (iv) a marble composition notebook.
In the handwritten notebook, Khan discussed additional weapons and firearms, how they could be used in an attack, and how law enforcement detection could be avoided once an attack was carried out. The notebook referenced a member of the University of Delaware’s Police Department by name, and included a layout of a building with entry and exit points under which the words “UD Police Station” were printed.
A report from WHYY-FM in Philadelphia indicated that, if he had a mass shooting on his mind, Khan had a motive, and it’s precisely what you’d expect:
The vehicle also contained several extended gun magazines, body armor and a notebook with handwritten notes and drawings. The criminal complaint filed by the FBI said the notebook targeted a member of the UD Police Department and included the phrase “battle efficiency: kill all – martyrdom.” Martyrdom is discussed repeatedly in his writings, the complaint states.
Khan was charged with illegally possessing a machinegun on Nov. 26, the Department of Justice noted. They didn’t give a motive for the alleged crimes, merely stating that a “manifesto” was found without too much of an explication.
Again, you didn’t need any talk of “martyrdom” to figure out what was afoot here. Perhaps Mr. Khan wanted to draw attention to the plight of secular Pakistani immigrants to the United States of America, or draw attention to the fact that Sydney Sweeney is a modern-day eugenicist hiding behind a jeans advertisement.
It’s far more likely, one would imagine, that he was drawn to act by the militant version of a religion that uses “martyrdom” as a by-word for terrorism and is quite common in Pakistan. But you be the judge.
Khan’s arrest, it’s here too worth noting, came on the same day an Afghani man opened fire on the National Guard in Washington, D.C., wounding two troops, one of whom died. In that case as well, religious extremism is reported to have played a part.
Now, the portion of law that deals with revoking the citizenship of naturalized immigrants — 8 U.S. Code § 1451 — only deals with specific violations that would cause revocation, and they don’t just involve general-issue criminality.
Membership in certain groups that would have precluded naturalization, concealment of material evidence, a refusal to testify before Congress about subversive activities — these are the only things which can get someone’s citizenship revoked.
Changing the law will require a lot of political capital and a few friends from the other side of the aisle; the Republicans may have the first, but it’s unlikely they have the second.
That said, the question remains whether the voters would countenance a change. Jeffries and the Democrats are counting on Mr. and Mrs. America to find this to be “unhinged.”
Whether or not the GOP can stake its electoral fortunes on changing naturalization law is another issue entirely, but the only thing “unhinged” about a naturalized Pakistani man who cannot be deported after allegedly formulating a plan to carry out a mass shooting in the name of “martyrdom” — aside from the act itself — is the fact that America cannot deport him.
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