White nationalism and crimmigration: public support for revoking naturalized and birthright citizenship

Objective The intertwining of the criminal legal system with immigration enforcement has shifted under President Donald Trump. The revoking of naturalized citizenship for criminal offending has increased and birthright citizenship has been attacked via executive order. A punitive “crimmigration” process where the criminal legal system is used not just to identify immigrants, but to revoke citizenship and open the door to immigration enforcement (deportation) may be on the horizon. Do Americans support revoking naturalized or birthright citizenship? Does it depend on the targeted citizens’ criminal behavior? Methods We embedded an experiment in a 2025 YouGov survey ( N = 1,000) to examine public opinion on revoking citizenship. The experiment randomized the targeted citizens’ citizenship type (naturalized or birthright) and crime type (none, traffic, nonviolent, or violent). Findings Most respondents (64%) opposed revoking citizenship. However, opposition dropped to 47% when citizens committed violent crimes. The strongest predictor of support for revoking citizenship was White nationalism, which also interacted with both experimental manipulations. Conclusion There is little public support for revoking citizenship, whether naturalized or birthright, as a punishment for crime. White nationalism, however, is a primary factor influencing how people view such punitive crimmigration policies.