The Trump administration asked federal courts this week to revoke the citizenship of 12 immigrants who committed crimes or took other actions that officials say disqualify them from being Americans, signaling that it planned to make good on a pledge to increase the rate of denaturalizations. The Justice Department filed the cases in federal courts across the country on Thursday and Friday. The individuals whose citizenship it seeks to revoke in this wave of cases are alleged to have obtained their status through fraud or by lying about past criminal acts, or because they demonstrated allegiance to terror groups after obtaining their citizenship. While the government has revoked citizenship in the past, it has done so sparingly because the process is difficult and because citizenship is generally revered. The Trump administration, however, has indicated that it will use every power at its disposal to expel immigrants it considers undeserving of their presence in the United States.…