Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Wednesday ruling out allowing Hoda Muthana back into the United States. Muthana left Alabama to briefly join ISIS, and now regrets the decision .
This is a tough issue for the US government, as the Trump Administration
has been pushing hard for the EU to repatriate hundreds of citizens who
are detained in Syria for ISIS memberships, but the US is refusing to
take back one.
The State Department is arguing their way around taking Muthana back by
claiming that she has “no legal basis” to claim US citizenship, even
though she was born in New Jersey in 1994. This is forcing a roundabout
argument against birthright citizenship.
The State Department is claiming Muthana’s father was a diplomat at the
time of her birth, but father was a diplomat from Yemen. The US does not
grant birthright citizenship to diplomats’ children.
Yet the paperwork shows Muthana was born October 28, 1994, and her
father’s term of employment for the Yemen mission to the UN ended
September 1, 1994, meaning he was no longer a diplomat at the time.
Muthana has been treated as a citizen her whole life, and had a US
passport, though officials now say it is revoked. Since she was not born
in Yemen, she also isn’t a Yemeni citizen, meaning she presently has no
citizenship.
Muthana made her choice; she’s not an American.
There are Americans who’ve served in the IDF or participated in other conflicts–and than came back with no questions asked. And they are still doing that…
Solly, Yes, but they are Israeli,,our true Masters, never question them!
Strip their citizenship from them as well. Anyone with two passports should be forced to make a choice. No dual citizenship. Citizenship of a child should follow the citizenship of the father.
Yeah, but there’s that pesky Constitution thing …
Wow look at the Congress and all those with dual citizenship there…..
Children born with dual citizenship are required to “choose” US citizenship at age 18 (I think) in order to get a US passport. However the other national citizenship possibility might not necessarily be voided by having that US passport.
As to following the “father’s” citizenship, that is your view but a crazy idea. Why? Because unlike motherhood, absent DNA testing the identity of the actual biological father is uncertain other than by mother’s claim. Lots of legal and fictional plot-lines about that matter. “chrismalllory” is my papa, so I say…
Chris, you are SO Correct!!!!
The Islamic State is a Western proxy army and officially an enemy of the United States.
The U.S. appears to have no formal defense alliance with Israel but through Memorandums of Understanding (soft treaties) since 1981, and Congress’ pro-Israel legislation, and 1985 Israel-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. is all but a full ally of Israel with the pretense of a fig leaf of plausible deniability.
Totally different situations. IS and Islam have no say in whether you get to Christian heaven the way your relationship with Israel and Zionism does.
Brock, you are correct! 🙂
Great move,,maybe send her to GITMO.
You are a clown. You ok with waterboarding too? Another phony Christian.
Wars, It is called taking responsibility for your actions, decisions, there is consequences,,ya know?? 🙂
True, and you condoning our offshore gulag might have you in deep sh*t with your creator. Unless, of course, you think your creator is a Nazi.
Political grandstanding and pandering at its worst. She’s an American citizen- bring her home, let her face the music in court, and go from there. This is nothing but WH bluster and posturing. I doubt very seriously the USG’s case will stand up to review.
Quite a contrast to Lee Oswald.
Citizenship can be formally “renounced” but otherwise is hard to obtain, at least for a US citizen. The reason here (today, not in the past) is income taxes. All US citizens are required to report worldwide personal income and pay US income taxes on that, subject to various deductions and usually, credit for paying non US income taxes. Or via tax treaty provisions. So unless Hoda filed a formal renunciation with an American embassy or govt office, probably is still a US citizen. She might try to file a 1040, pay something, and see what happens.
(Before you can be legally “renounced” the US Treasury researches and can levy a special tax if recent prior year income taxes are above a certain level.)
In this case they are relying on a specific diplomatic legalism. The issue may boil down to that language: does the “diplomatic exception” apply at time of conception or live birth? However, in the past Americans who chose to fight in declared wars against the US were automatically stripped of citizenship. Probably won’t apply here.
“However, in the past Americans who chose to fight in declared wars against the US were automatically stripped of citizenship”
Example?
How would it benefit Americans to let her back into the country? She made her choice of where her loyalties lie.
How would it benefit Americans to let you stay in the country?
Why should Americans have any say in whether or not you stay in the country, leave the country, come back, etc.
Either she’s a citizen by birth or she isn’t. If she is, she might be culpable for crimes she’s committed under US law, but her citizenship is not anyone else’s property. The only way she loses it is if she voluntarily renounces it.
Is there any action that in your opinion that would allow for the stripping of citizenship?
It’s not about my opinion. I didn’t write the US Constitution (particularly its 14th Amendment), nor was I among the state legislators who declined to ratify the Titles of Nobility Amendment (which would have provided for stripping of citizenship), nor was I among the SCOTUS justices who held in Afroyim v. Rusk that the citizenship of natural-born US citizens may only be renounced voluntarily and that the citizenship of naturalized citizens may only be stripped for fraud/misrepresentation in the naturalization process.
In this particular case, the Trump regime’s case rests on the claim that Muthana is the daughter of a foreign diplomat. The problem with that is that she was born on US soil after he ceased to be a diplomat.
I suspect the regime’s handling of this case is more an attempt to break the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause — as Trump himself has publicly mused about trying to do in the past — than about Muthana herself.
Muh constitution ! Gtfo here, the constitution allows of unrestricted right to bear arms , yet we don’t have that. So your appeal to it is meaningless.