AG Pam Bondi Draws Backlash for Claiming that Citizenship is a Privilege, Not A Constitutional Right

In the wake of the denaturalization of two people who lied on their application for U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing backlash for a statement that was deemed unconstitutional and insensitive.

In an interview with Fox News regarding the legal decision to revoke the American citizenship of the two individuals, Bondi said, “Being a citizen in our country is a privilege, not a right. And [President] Donald Trump is going to have everyone in this country who deserves to be here, who is a citizen.”

She followed up the interview with a post on X, where she included a link to an article about the Trump administration’s successful effort of citizenship revocation. “American citizenship is a sacred privilege — not a cheap status that can be obtained dishonestly,” Bondi wrote.

She added that “Today’s denaturalization actions reflect this Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to strip citizenship from people who conceal crimes or defraud the American people during the immigration process.”

Her comments received almost immediate backlash as many pointed out that U.S. citizenship is a right included in the Constitution, and that framing rights as “privileges” implied they can be taken away at any time. The first sentence of the 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Users on X compared Bondi’s statements to the revocation of citizenship of Jewish people in Nazi Germany and brought up the subpoena handed to her to testify in front of Congress surrounding the release of the Epstein files.

Reuters reported that the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on April 1 over the legality of Trump’s directive seeking to restrict birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States, after lower courts blocked the policy and said it conflicted with the 14th Amendment and federal law.

On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, directing federal agencies to stop recognizing citizenship for some children born on U.S. soil if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The order specifically targets babies born to mothers who are in the country unlawfully, or temporarily, when the father is neither a citizen nor a green card holder.

Newsweek, in coverage of the denaturalization push, highlighted Bondi’s quote and noted that denaturalization remains rare in the United States, averaging roughly 11 cases a year according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Denaturalization has long been treated as an extraordinary remedy, usually tied to fraud or concealment during the naturalization process, not as a general mechanism for revisiting citizenship itself.