The Hard Right in Congress Has a Dangerous Plan to Strip American 'Terrorists' of Their Citizenship

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http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/hard-right-congress-has-dangerous-plan-strip-american-terrorists-their-citizenship


Three weeks after the new Republican-controlled Congress was sworn in, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Steve King (R-IA) announced legislation that would strip Americans of their citizenship if they joined a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Cruz originally announced the bill last September.

“Americans who choose to go to Syria or Iraq to fight with vicious ISIS terrorists are party to a terrorist organization committing horrific acts of violence, including beheading innocent American journalists who they have captured,” the Texas senator said in a statement. “There can be no clearer renunciation of their citizenship in the United States, and we need to do everything we can to preempt any attempt on their part to re-enter our country and carry out further attacks on American civilians.”

The bill has the backing of Senator Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, but it likely has little shot of passing. Even if it does, the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that Congress cannot forcibly remove an American's citizenship.

Potential presidential candidate Cruz’s backing of the bill could mean the idea is injected into the American political debate as the 2016 elections approach. More importantly, though, is what the bill signifies: stripping people of their citizenship for joining terrorist groups is an idea that is gaining popularity, despite its echoes of tactics used by totalitarian regimes. This is especially the case in Europe, and also in authoritarian states like Bahrain.

[bemildred]

1. They seem to feel very endangered, our conservative congressmen, by all the eager terrorists.

Someone needs to ask why this is such a popular thing to do, going to get yourself killed in the Middle East, that we need to have laws passed to let us know what a bad idea it is.

[stevenleser]

2. For reference, a list of prominent denaturalized former citizens of the US

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_denaturalized_former_citizens_of_the_United_States