| Legislative Snakes
Dear A-Letter Reader:
As a former member of the Maryland State Senate and the US House of Representatives, I can tell you from first hand experience that in the final hours before adjournment of a session the snakes come out, trying their best to crawl through unnoticed. I'm talking about last minute legislative proposals that try a sneak play because in the full light of careful deliberations they wouldn't have a chance.
Aside from the monstrous mess the Congress made of the PATRIOT Act extension, the US Congress last week was a good example of an adjournment legislative snake pit.
One of the major candidates for the legislative reptile award was HR 4437, entitled "An Act to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes." Authored by my old college buddy, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc), who seems to have lost his true conservative beliefs in recent years, the bill is a mess in many respects.
One of the worst aspects of this reactionary bill is an unconstitutional attempt to repeal numerous US Supreme Court decisions that clearly have upheld the right of Americans to hold dual citizenship, that is, to be citizens of more than one nation and hold more than one passport. The offensive section in the bill states that: "Upon the naturalization of a new citizen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in cooperation with the Secretary of State, shall notify the embassy of the country of which the new citizen was a citizen or subject that such citizen has renounced allegiance to that foreign country; and sworn allegiance to the United States."
In fact and in practice, while the US government policy discourages dual citizenship, government bureaucrats and tax collectors see dual nationality as a serious threat to their control over the citizenry they profess to serve. As more US citizens acquire dual nationality, the debate is intensifying. Eager to work or retire abroad free of red tape and restrictions, or to strengthen ties with their ancestral lands, record numbers of people are obtaining a second, foreign passport.
Many countries won't permit their citizens to hold a passport from another nation. This was the case in the US until 1967, when the US Supreme Court upheld the right of US citizens to hold a second, foreign passport. Before that time, the official rule was that a person acquiring second nationality automatically lost US citizenship. Since 1967, the government generally presumes a US citizen does not wish to surrender citizenship. Proof of that intention is required before expatriation is officially recognized. The burden of proof is on the government to show intentional abandonment of US citizenship. These presumptions are set forth in a US Department of State publication, Advice About Possible Loss of U.S. Citizenship and Dual Nationality, 1990.
Dual nationality simply means that a person legally is a citizen of two countries at the same time, qualified as such under each nation's law. This status may result automatically, as when a child born in a foreign country to a US citizen becomes both a US citizen and a citizen of the country where he or she is born. Or it may result from operation of law, as when a US citizen acquires foreign citizenship by marriage to a spouse from another nation, or a foreign person naturalized as a US citizen retains the citizenship of their country of birth. This latter group is the one singled out by the Sensenbrenner bill. Until now there has been no requirement for a newly naturalized American citizen to relinquish their old citizenship or hand in their old passport. Indeed, many thousands of naturalized US citizens of Mexican descent are still considered citizens of Mexico under that nation's law.
The point is that under US law, a second passport does not jeopardize American citizenship. As I noted, the US Supreme Court has so held in numerous cases since 1967. Apparently the current members of the US House don't read the law -- or, like President Bush and wiretaps, they just ignore it. Fortunately, HR 4437 has only passed the House and reportedly it will not have much chance in the US Senate in it present form -- thankfully so.
That's the way that it looks from here,
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
PS: Learn more about dual citizenship & second passports. Click here for my latest edition of The Passport Book.
LINK: http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/190SGOPS/E190FC39/
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