Univision continues to push deportation fear doom to their audience. The network’s latest outburst, on a Department of Justice memo issuing expanded denaturalization guidelines, plays loose with the use of the term “civil crimes.”
Watch as anchor Ilia Calderón and correspondent Reyna Rodríguez use the term twice within 19 seconds in order to create a false narrative:
NOTICIERO UNIVISION
6/30/25
6:31 PM
ILIA CALDERÓN: A Department of Justice memo issues instructions for the revocation of citizenship for immigrants who commit certain civil crimes. Reyna Rodríguez tells us about the implications.
REYNA RODRIGUEZ: The Trump administration is seeking to revoke the U.S. citizenship of naturalized immigrants who have committed civil offenses. In a memo, the Department of Justice requests that the federal agency's lawyers initiate civil proceedings to remove citizenship.
HAIM VASQUEZ: The denaturalization process is not a new one. What's causing some concern here is the emphasis the government is placing on it.
RODRGUEZ: According to the statement, the measure targets those who obtained their status in an unlawful manner, lied on immigration forms, who pose a potential threat to national security, and who engaged in financial or medical fraud.
The idea here is to make viewers especially fearful, and to lead naturalized citizens to believe that they could be deported for any reason. “Civil crimes” is key to this framing and is both confusing highly deceptive.
The term “civil crimes" suggests that people could be denaturalized and deported for mere procedural minutiae. But in reality, “civil” refers to the administrative process itself. The crimes that could lead to deportation are in fact crimes, as opposed to civil offenses like a speeding ticket, having your dog without a leash on city streets, or violating your local noise ordinance by playing loud music.
In fact, NPR’s item decrying the new guidelines lament the deportation of a man found guilty of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material- not a civil offense!
Shame on Univision for obscuring what is a pretty cut-and-dried issue: you get caught lying on your immigration forms, committing fraud or other crimes, and you lose naturalization. As this report unfortunately proves, nowhere is the audience of Spanish-language news media more vulnerable to disinformation fearmongering than on the issue of immigration- vital to these networks’ business interests.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on Noticiero Univision on Monday, June 30th, 2025:
ILIA CALDERÓN: About 25 million naturalized Americans could be in the Trump administration's sights. A Department of Justice memo issues instructions for the revocation of citizenship for immigrants who commit certain civil crimes. Reyna Rodríguez tells us about the implications.
REYNA RODRIGUEZ: The Trump administration is seeking to revoke the U.S. citizenship of naturalized immigrants who have committed civil offenses. In a memo, the Department of Justice requests that the federal agency's lawyers initiate civil proceedings to remove citizenship.
HAIM VASQUEZ:The denaturalization process is not a new one. What's causing some concern here is the emphasis the government is placing on it.
RODRGUEZ: According to the statement, the measure targets those who obtained their status in an unlawful manner, lied on immigration forms, who pose a potential threat to national security, and who engaged in financial or medical fraud.
VASQUEZ: The government must begin a civil denaturalization process and present clear and convincing evidence. It's not simple or easy.
RODRGUEZ: Some lawyers point out that a civil trial can deprive an affected person of rights, including the right to legal representation. According to the Migration Policy Institute, some 25 million immigrants were naturalized US citizens by 2023. Mauricio, who asked us not to show his face, said that becoming a citizen of this country was not easy.
MAURICIO: A fear returns that any mistake, any misinterpretation, uh, could put me at risk of returning to that life of- of what if they- what if they kick me out of here?
RODRGUEZ: The directive for denaturalization is one of the administration's latest efforts to restructure the immigration system. President Trump has sought to eliminate birthright citizenship and reduce refugee programs.
ALAN CISNEROS: They are citizens, and they are not second-class citizens.And they must be respected, and due process must be followed.
RODRIGUEZ: In McAllen, Texas: Reyna Rodriguez, Univision.
