Should Americans who go fight for ISIS/ISIL lose their Citizenship?

[g5000]

Hey, if you want to drone bomb the living shit out of an American citizen fighting on the battlefield for ISIL in Iraq or Syria, go right ahead. I have no problem with that, and do not see it as a constitutional conflict.

But if you manage to catch that bastard on American soil and can prove he plotted harm against the United States, then all his constitutional protections as a US citizen should be in full effect.

No waterboarding, Rafael! Sorry!

Put the son of a bitch on trial and show the world how it is done.

 

[RandallFlagg]

Ted Cruz thinks so and I agree with him.

“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,” Cruz 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.”

They should not only lose their citizenship, they should be branded as traitors and, if encountered, shot in the head. Americans who fought for Nazi Germany were killed on the spot - as they should have been.

If there were Americans who fought for Germany on the battlefield, they were killed on the battlefield. Americans who spied for Germany were not killed on the spot, nor was their citizenship revoked.

Bullshit.

World War II Oddities Part 1 Foreign Born Nazi Soldiers

Get your act together, fool

Can U.S. Citizenship be revoked by the Federal Government

 

[M.D. Rawlings]

Ted Cruz thinks so and I agree with him.

“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,” Cruz 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 legal precedents trounce Rafael Cruz.

Americans who spied for the USSR did not lose their citizenship.

Americans who committed acts of sabotage for Nazi Germany did not lose their citizenship.

A criminal traitor does not lose their citizenship.

Sound to me like demagogue Rafael has a waterboard and wants to use it.

False.

Show me a natural born American spy who had their citizenship revoked.

I just explained to you why the government is not going to do that. Technically, it can, if that natural-born citizen is also a citizen of another country or is offered citizenship by another country, presumably the one the citizen served in his act of treason. But he's got to get out of jail first. Our government simply isn't going to do that for practical reasons. I merely pointed out to you that under the law, the government can do that.

And I have pointed out that ISIS/ISIL is not a country.

And I have pointed out that ISIS/ISIL is not a country.

Pay attention! You keep jumping from one context to another. The context in the above doesn't go to self-declared nations/entities like ISIS/ISIL. It goes to acts of treason involving formal states/military forces. The other line of posts went to self-declared nations/entities like ISIS. That's an entirely different matter, as I said a gray area to be sure.

ISIS/ISIL is not a country? No shit, Sherlock.

 

[M.D. Rawlings]

What does the constitution say about taking ones citizenship away?

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to "establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization" which includes the terms under which a U.S. citizen may renounce his citizenship via formal declarations or acts of expatriation.

The prevailing body of law: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as revised by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (or the Revised Statutes Act of 1986), along with the Immigration Act of 1990 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Also see post #62 for conditions of renunciation/expatriation, State Department regulations (Foreign Affairs Manuel) and pertinent case law.
_______________________

As for Cruz's argument: the government is not going to certify the termination of these guys citizenship without new legislation, certainly not the citizenship of those who are natural-born, in spite of the government's arguably legal grounds to do so, assuming there is any such grounds given the technicality of the fact that ISIS is not a formally recognized nation or military force. The best response is to apprehend them and charge them for crimes . . . or just kill them abroad as our forces engage ISIS directly or indirectly.