As part of its crackdown on illegal immigration, President Donald Trump’s government is reportedly making moves to revoke the citizenship of 17 Americans accused of immigration fraud.

“The Trump administration on Monday plans to announce it is seeking to revoke the citizenship of 17 U.S. citizens accused of immigration fraud, expanding its unprecedented denaturalisation campaign,” CBS News reported on Monday.

The report stated that the 17 people targeted for the latest denaturalisation had been convicted of violent crimes, ranging from sex offences against children, wire and immigration fraud.

“In federal court complaints filed across the country in recent days, Justice Department officials argued that the individuals concealed their criminal activity when they applied for U.S. citizenship or were otherwise ineligible to be naturalised, including because they lacked a “good moral character,” one of the requirements in the naturalisation process,” the report stated.

Those listed for citizenship revocation are from Haiti, Mexico, Colombia, and India, among others.

According to the report, the latest round of denaturalisation cases includes a Haitian immigrant who allegedly sexually abused his daughter; a man from the former Yugoslavia convicted of sexually abusing a child under the age of 15; and an immigrant from Mexico convicted of receiving sexually explicit images of minors.

Others are a former Catholic priest born in Colombia, accused of child sex abuse, and a Filipino-born man who pleaded guilty to a child sex crime. 

It added, “The group also includes an Indian immigrant accused of filing fraudulent H-1B visa petitions; the daughter of a Colombian drug trafficker accused of money laundering; a man born in Jamaica convicted of wire fraud; and a Cuban-born woman accused of defrauding a tribal casino. Other naturalised citizens were accused of using false identities.”

When effected, this would be the largest single revocation of U.S. citizenship in recent years.

Data has shown that between 1990 and 2017, the Justice Department filed an average of 11 legal complaints per year seeking to denaturalise American citizens.

Earlier in January, Mr Trump had vowed to ensure that those who manipulated the system to gain American citizenship or those convicted of violent crimes would be denaturalised and deported.