Naturalized US citizens thought they were safe. Trump's immigration policies are shaking that belief

NEW YORK (AP) — When he first came to the United States after escaping civil war in Sierra Leone and spending almost a decade in a refugee camp, Dauda Sesay had no idea he could become a citizen. But he was told that if he followed the rules and stayed out of trouble, after some years he could apply. As a U.S. citizen, he would have protection.

It’s what made him decide to apply: the premise — and the promise — that when he became a naturalized American citizen, it would create a bond between him and his new home. He would have rights as well as responsibilities, like voting, that, as he was making a commitment to the country, the country was making one to him.

“When I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance, I did believe that moment the promise that I belonged,” said Sesay, 48, who first arrived in Louisiana more than 15 years ago and now works as an advocate for refugees and their integration into American society.

But in recent months, as President Donald Trump reshapes immigration and the country's relationship with immigrants, that belief has been shaken for Sesay and other naturalized citizens. There's now fear that the push to drastically increase deportations and shift who can claim America as home, through things like trying to end birthright citizenship, is having a ripple effect.

What they thought was the bedrock protection of naturalization now feels more like quicksand.

Some are worried that if they leave the country, they will have difficulties when trying to return, fearful because of accounts of naturalized citizens being questioned or detained by U.S. border agents. They wonder: Do they need to lock down their phones to protect their privacy? Others are hesitant about moving around within the country, after stories like that of a U.S. citizen accused of being here illegally and detained even after his mother produced his birth certificate.

There has been no evidence of an uptick in denaturalizations so far in this Trump administration. Yet that hasn't assuaged some. Sesay said he doesn't travel domestically anymore without his passport, despite having a REAL ID with its federally mandated, stringent identity requirements.

Immigration enforcement roundups, often conducted by masked, unidentifiable federal agents in places including Chicago and New York City, have at times included American citizens in their dragnets. One U.S. citizen who says he was detained by immigration agents twice has filed a federal lawsuit.

Adding to the worries, the Justice Department issued a memo this summer saying it would ramp up efforts to denaturalize immigrants who’ve committed crimes or are deemed to present a national security risk. At one point during the summer, Trump threatened the citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, who naturalized as a young adult.

The atmosphere makes some worried to speak about it publicly, for fear of drawing negative attention to themselves. Requests for comment through several community organizations and other connections found no takers willing to go on the record other than Sesay.

In New Mexico, state Sen. Cindy Nava says she's familiar with the fear, having grown up undocumented before getting DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protected people brought to the U.S. as children from being deported — and gaining citizenship through her marriage. But she hadn't expected to see so much fear among naturalized citizens.

“I had never seen those folks be afraid ... now the folks that I know that were not afraid before, now they are uncertain of what their status holds in terms of a safety net for them," Nava said.

What citizenship has meant, and who was included, has expanded and contracted over the course of American history, said Stephen Kantrowitz, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said while the word “citizen” is in the original Constitution, it is not defined.

“When the Constitution is written, nobody knows what citizenship means,” he said. “It’s a term of art, it comes out of the French revolutionary tradition. It sort of suggests an equality of the members of a political community, and it has some implications for the right to be a member of that political community. But it is ... so undefined.”

The first naturalization law passed in 1790 by the new country’s Congress said citizenship was for any “free white person” of good character. Those of African descent or nativity were added as a specific category to federal immigration law after the ravages of the Civil War in the 19th century, which was also when the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to establish birthright citizenship.

In the last years of the 19th century and into the 20th century, laws were put on the books limiting immigration and, by extension, naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1924 effectively barred people from Asia because they were ineligible for naturalization, being neither white nor Black. That didn't change until 1952, when an immigration law removed racial restrictions on who could be naturalized. The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act replaced the previous immigration system with one that portioned out visas equally among nations.

American history also includes times when those who had citizenship had it taken away, like after the 1923 Supreme Court ruling in U.S. vs. Bhagat Singh Thind. That ruling said that Indians couldn't be naturalized because they did not qualify as white and led to several dozen denaturalizations. At other times, it was ignored, as in World War II, when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps.

“Political power will sometimes simply decide that a group of people, or a person or a family isn’t entitled to citizenship,” Kantrowitz said.

In this moment, Sesay says, it feels like betrayal.

“The United States of America — that’s what I took that oath of allegiance, that’s what I make commitment to,” Sesay said. “Now, inside my home country, and I’m seeing a shift. ... Honestly, that is not the America I believe in when I put my hand over my heart.”

This story has been corrected to reflect that Dauda Sesay is 48 years old, not 44.

FILE - Protesters rally against immigration raids in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

FILE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)

FILE - Illinois State Police stand guard as people including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) gather outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

FILE - A woman clutches a U.S. flag as she and applicants from other countries prepare to take the oath of citizenship in commemoration of Independence Day during a Naturalization Ceremony in San Antonio, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

MONGKOL BOREY, Cambodia (AP) — Heavy combat between Thailand and Cambodia entered a second week on Monday, with Phnom Penh claiming that Thai bombing is hitting deeper into its territory, coming close to shelters for people who had already fled dangerous areas along the border.

According to Cambodia’s defense and information ministries, Thai F-16 fighter jets dropped two bombs shortly after 10 a.m. near camps for displaced people in Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap provinces.

The bombing in Siem Reap's Srei Snam district, more than 70 kilometers (43 miles) inside Cambodian territory, targeted a bridge, Cambodian authorities said. The province is home to the world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the country’s biggest tourist attraction.

Asked about the attack at a news conference, Thailand's Air Marshal Jackkrit Thammavichai, spokesperson of the air force, offered an oblique confirmation of the bombing.

“According to the international law and the rules of engagement, a military target is not defined based on the distance from the border," he said. “It’s actually defined based on the characteristic and objective of the use of that facility for military purposes.”

He said Thailand's air force abides by international law by not targeting civilians and that Monday's operation didn’t impact Cambodian civilians nearby.

Access to the combat zone and nearby areas is limited, so few claims by either side can be independently verified.

The two sides are battling over longstanding competing claims to patches of frontier land, some of which contain centuries-old temple ruins.

More than two dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in the past week’s fighting, while more than half a million have been displaced, according to officials.

Thai officials issued an estimate of what damage has been inflicted on Cambodia’s military since a skirmish on Dec. 7 that wounded two Thai soldiers ignited large-scale fighting. They said Cambodian losses included 12 tanks, 10 armored vehicles, four anti-aircraft artillery systems, seven artillery pieces, five anti-drone systems, 175 drones, five communication hubs and one BM-21 mobile rocket launcher.

Thailand says Cambodia has fired thousands of rockets from the truck-mounted BM-21 launchers, which have a range of 30-40 kilometers (19-25 miles) and can fire up to 40 projectiles at a time.

Thailand’s government announced on Sunday that a rocket attack from Cambodia had killed a 63-year-old villager, its first civilian death reported as a direct result of combat.

Col. Ritcha Suksuwanon, a Thai army deputy spokesperson, said on Sunday that an intact Chinese GAM-102LR guided anti-tank missile system was seized. Thailand estimates among Cambodia’s losses some 82 military positions and 505 Cambodian military personnel reportedly killed.

Cambodia has dismissed as disinformation previous Thai estimates of its military death toll but has not released its own figures. Thailand acknowledges the deaths of 16 of its troops.

Phnom Penh said Monday that 15 civilians have been killed and 73 wounded.

Thai officials also said they were trying to cut off the supply of fuel and weapons to Cambodia, but denied reports that a full-scale naval blockade would be mounted. Capt. Nara Khunkothom, assistant spokesperson for the Thai navy, said only Thai-registered vessels would be subject to their controls in what they have officially designated a “high-risk area” in the Gulf of Thailand.

Officials also said fuel and weapons would no longer be allowed to go through a major land checkpoint to neighboring Laos that is close to Cambodian territory, declaring that military supplies and logistical support must be cut off.

In a surprise admission, Thai officials implicitly acknowledged that attacks had damaged centuries-old Ta Kwai temple — known to Cambodians as Ta Krabey — in a disputed area, but blamed Cambodia for allegedly using it as a military stronghold.

Phnombootra Chandrajoti, director-general of Thailand's Fine Arts Department, said that historical sites should not be used as bases for military operations and that the most important priority is that Thailand must secure and preserve the area.

The new fighting derailed a ceasefire promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump that ended five days of earlier combat in July. It had been brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

Trump announced this past Friday that the two countries had agreed at his urging to renew the ceasefire, but Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul denied making any commitment and Cambodia announced it was continuing to fight in what it said is self-defense.

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Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Wasamon Audjarint in Bangkok contributed to this report.

In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), displaced people flee shortly after a Thai bombing near their villages, at Srei Snam district, Siem Reap province, Cambodia, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025.(AKP via AP)

Displaced people sit on the floor as they take their refuge in Prey Chamkar Ta Doak market in Banteay Meanchey province, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, after fleeing home following fighting along the Thailand-Cambodia border. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A displaced people prays as she takes their refuge in Prey Chamkar Ta Doak market in Banteay Meanchey province, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, after fleeing home following fighting along the Thailand-Cambodia border. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Members of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A member of a Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal team shows pieces of shrapnel as they inspect the site of a rocket attack during clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in Kantharalak district of Sisaket province, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)