Two videos, posted the same day, 188,000 views between them. One title: 'Trump Ready to DEPORT.' The other: 'Demands Trump DEPORT Mamdani' [1].
Both people named are naturalized citizens of the United States, currently holding elected office. A citizen cannot be deported. That is not a technicality; it is the difference between citizenship and every other status.
What could theoretically happen is a two-step process, and neither step has been initiated.
The first is denaturalization. Under 8 U.S.C. 1451(a), it falls to 'the United States attorneys... upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any district court of the United States... for the purpose of revoking and setting aside the order admitting such person to citizenship' [2]. A federal judge, not a president.
The burden is deliberately severe. In Kungys v. United States, the Supreme Court described it as 'clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence which does not leave the issue in doubt' - a standard Cornell's Legal Information Institute notes mirrors the one required in criminal cases [3]. In Maslenjak v. United States, decided in 2017, the Court also held that the illegal act must have 'somehow contributed to the obtaining of citizenship' [4]. A lie that made no difference to the outcome is not enough.
The second step is the one the videos skip entirely. Denaturalization does not deport anybody. It restores whatever status the person held before naturalizing. Removal is a separate proceeding, with its own hearings and its own appeals.
The phrase 'ready to deport' therefore compresses two legal processes into one word, and neither has begun.
One narrower note. The same video asserts a specific timeline - that one official 'just became a citizen like last week.' This newsroom has not verified either official's naturalization year and is not printing one. The statutory analysis does not depend on it: the process is identical whether someone naturalized in 2000 or last week.
