As of Oct. 5, the Justice Department had filed 40 denaturalization cases in federal courts, where judges will determine whether sufficient evidence exists to revoke the individuals’ citizenship. Those born U.S. citizens generally cannot be denaturalized because they did not obtain citizenship through naturalization. Although the 40 individuals have been convicted of various crimes – including sexual offenses against minors and voluntary manslaughter – the denaturalization proceedings are separate civil lawsuits according to Attorney General Todd Blanche. According to federal law under 8 U.S.C. § 1451, citizenship can be revoked if it was obtained illegally or through the willful concealment of material facts or willful misrepresentation during the naturalization process. However, the government cannot simply take away someone’s citizenship because they have committed a crime. It must establish legally sufficient grounds for denaturalization rather than rely solely on a criminal conviction. This is important because citizenship is a serious legal status, and the government must follow the law when seeking to revoke it. According to the Justice Department’s announcement on Oct. 5, the Justice Department filed 40 denaturalization cases against naturalized U.S. citizens in multiple federal courts between Aug. 21 and Oct. 2. The department described this as the largest number of denaturalization complaints filed during a single period under the Trump administration. However, the department also acknowledged that the allegations in these proceedings have not yet been resolved by the courts. I believe that people who knowingly break the law should be held accountable for their actions. Criminal conviction and the loss of citizenship are two separate matters, and one does not automatically mean the other will happen. The U.S government has to respect the legal process and see that every case is backed by evidence. Ultimately, these cases will depend on the evidence presented in court and whether the government can meet its legal burden. The goal should be to hold people accountable when the law has been violated while also protecting the rights of individuals who have legally obtained their citizenship. As these cases move forward, the court decisions could help clarify how denaturalization laws are applied in future proceedings. Judges must evaluate the legal grounds and evidence in each case individually to determine whether the Justice Department has provided sufficient evidence to justify revoking a person’s citizenship. Acknowledgement: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author, not necessarily Our National Conversation as a whole.
By Felipe Cisternas
There is already a lot of controversy surrounding the death penalty. Some see it as the ultimate act of retribution, while others question the idea of institutionalized slaughter. This discourse gets even more complicated when someone survives the execution. Convicted murderer Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection on September 30th. Pike was released from the hospital Saturday back to Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center a week after her botched execution. She is the only person known to have survived an execution attempt in the US. Pike reportedly was “crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly” and stated that her arm “felt like it was going to burst open” as she was given two lethal doses of pentobarbital. Allegedly, one of the needles was bent at a 90-degree angle upon removal. Pentobarbital has been described as extremely painful causing a burning sensation upon contact. After her injections were administered, she appeared to still be breathing and was rushed to the hospital. Pike’s arms were reportedly swollen, burned, and blistered when she arrived, according to a motion filed by her attorneys. She had been on a ventilator until Tuesday when she regained consciousness. Little is known about her exact condition at this time. Attorneys have described her as “cognitively not quite back to normal,” reportedly struggling with concentration and memory. She can now walk with assistance, and her arms are starting to heal and regain movement. Before her execution, her attorneys raised concerns about her sentence, saying that the medication used could carry a large risk of pain and suffering. They requested death by hanging instead, citing concerns surrounding a platelet disorder and small veins that would make injection not only painful but ineffective. The Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robin Maher described the attempt as “the worst we’ve ever seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era.” Support for capital punishment is at its lowest it has been in decades, according to a 2025 Gallup poll. The practice is mainly being championed by conservatives, notably in states like Tennessee. For now, Tennessee has put a halt on all scheduled executions for the rest of the year. The Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has also announced his resignation. The governor’s office appointed former US Attorney Ed Staonton to conduct an independent investigation of the execution attempt “to determine whether the protocol was followed and consider whether additional recommendations are necessary to ensure the State’s protocol continues to be lawful and effective.” Judges granted a motion that orders the Tennessee Department of Corrections to preserve all evidence related to the execution attempt. Attorneys have also requested to have her sentence commuted to life without parole. Pike has been the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row, being the first woman to go through an execution attempt in Tennessee since 1820. In 1995, she was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Collen Slemmer. At 18, Pike had tortured and killed Slemmer with a meat cleaver and box cutter in the woods of the University of Tennessee campus with the assistance of her boyfriend and friend. The mother of Slemmer, May Martinez, drove from Florida to Nashville to witness the execution and has expressed frustration that the execution was not carried out. Martinez says she is angry not only over the gruesome torture of her daughter but the toll of the lengthy litigation over Pike’s execution. Pike has spent three decades in prison and largely in isolation. While in prison, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD, which her attorneys say contributed to her 1995 crime. Before her execution, Pike told the New York Times, “the biggest punishment was taking me away from people and human contact.” A 2025 settlement allowed her to interact with other women in prison physically, but under Tennessee’s new execution protocol, she was returned to isolation a few days before her sentence. I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the death penalty. Though I believe it can be necessary in some extreme cases, my opinion is that the worst kind of punishment is life in prison. Isolation can be a fate worse than death. It can take years for people to feel guilty for the crimes they have committed, but this guilt can eat a person up. Reflection and rehabilitation is important for all prisoners. Pike committed an awful crime, but no one deserves a painful death, not even Pike. The recent action in Tennessee should cause a nationwide reflection on the death penalty: who deserves it and what is the most humane way to carry it out? No matter how inhumane the crime might have been, every person deserves to be treated like a human being, even in death.
By Adrihanna Collins
Over the past decade, Progressivism has gained immense support and traction within the Democratic Party, particularly Democratic Socialism. Politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zhoran Mamdani, are among the many figures to have fostered these ideals into the mainstream political scene. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have aided in this surge of support, mainly amongst college students. On the flip side, however interesting and potentially beneficial it is for Americans to explore their ideological freedom, the Democratic Socialist push has led to grandstanding and obscene levels of political partisanship. This past Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on Israeli civilians. In New York City, Mayor Zhoran Mamdani attended a vigil organized by Israelis for Peace, where they solemnly commemorated the victims. The vigil however, was disrupted by both Pro-Palestinian and DSA members who accused Mamdani of betraying the Pro-Palestinian movement that he had so long championed. The issue is clear here. Mayor Mamdani has a duty to serve all his constituents regardless of how the optics look. These people were grieving innocent civilians. They were grieving their friends and relatives. New York not only has a vibrant Jewish population, but one of the largest and most vibrant urban Jewish populations in the world. This is also a group that overwhelmingly supported Mamdani’s former rival, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, in the New York City general election in 2025. Cuomo received 63% of the Jewish vote, with Mamdani receiving 33%. This is important for Democratic Socialists and those on the farther left of the political spectrum to understand. Mamdani already has a job to do. He needs to gain the trust of the people who elect him; all of them. He also certainly has an uphill battle with claiming the Jewish vote due to his already very clear anti-genocide and anti-Israel positions. The genocide is certainly real; I’ve written about it. What Mayor Mamdani did was not an endorsement of oppression committed by Israel or heinous atrocities. What he did was stand with his people, his fellow New Yorkers, to condemn the violence against innocent civilians who were murdered by a known terror group. It is of course important to highlight that Israel has been proven to be committing genocide in Gaza. Israel’s response has been deeply disproportional and has killed and displaced tens of thousands. Regardless, the innocent civilians killed on October 7th controlled no aspect of their country’s government. They had no part in the subsequent atrocities committed by the Israeli government and should be treated as such. Furthermore, Mamdani pushed his career into turmoil when he expressed intention to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over his arrest warrant via The International Criminal Court. Ultimately, due to the fact that The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, Mamdani could not enforce this arrest warrant against Netanyahu when he came to New York to give his UN General Assembly speech on September 24th, 2026. This is cited as part of the outrage by the vigil protestors. They expected a mayor with small jurisdiction inside of an American city to be able to simply detain a world leader of massive standing and power. By turning on one of its most prominent leaders, Democratic Socialists made themselves more of a stigmatized political minority than ever. One aspect some progressives and Democratic Socialists can’t seem to comprehend is that not every move by a leader is some political statement. They would rather focus outrage on the first Muslim mayor of New York City – who has hurt his own political career supporting Palestinians and calling out Israel’s atrocities – than actually facing the politicians on the left that deny Palestinian genocide. Progressives should be protesting and demonstrating against politicians who truly are against the Palestinian movement such as Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who argues Israel is just in its war crimes and has denied a genocide. Interestingly enough, he also was gifted a silver-plated pager directly from Netanyahu in 2024. Fetterman is one of the many real enemies and betrayers of the Progressive movement, and he should be given this horrid treatment, not Mamdani. The Democratic Socialist and Progressive wing of the Democratic party needs to engage in more political solidarity and instead collaborate with leaders like Mayor Mamdani. They must not desecrate the memorial of innocent civilians, which only brings more animosity towards the ideology of Pro-Palestinian and Democratic Socialism, making it harder to progress as a movement set on changing the current climate for the better.
By Theodore Maher
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