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Unmaking Americans: Insecure Citizenship in the United States

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Unmaking Americans: Insecure Citizenship in the United States UNMAKING AMERICANS: INSECURE CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES Whether obtained through birth or naturalization, American Equal U.S. citizenship is affected—and in many cases, citizenship is American citizenship. In the darkest moments of imperiled—in the following areas: U.S. history, political leaders have exploited citizenship laws to promote nativist ideologies and to advance regressive political Denaturalization: The revocation of U.S. citizenship acquired agendas. The legacy is a citizenship system riddled with gaps in through naturalization. The Department of Justice prosecutes protections, eroding the fundamental promise of equality. cases under two federal statutes (civil and criminal). Existing gaps in citizenship protections increase the Denial and revocation of U.S. passports: The Department of vulnerability of citizens because of their race, national origin, State initiates these administrative actions. Affected individuals religion, political opinion or a combination of factors. The power can challenge passport cases through litigation in order to prove to deprive or deny citizenship can even lead to statelessness their U.S. citizenship. Passport denials and revocations impact – when an individual has no nationality at all – rendering both naturalized citizens and citizens by birth. affected individuals without protection and subject to all manner of human rights abuses. Political attacks on citizenship by birth: Policy proposals and surrounding rhetoric regarding the status of children born in the United States to non-citizens. KEY FACTS AND FIGURES Current denaturalization cases On average, there have been more An in-depth analysis of disparately impact citizens based on denaturalizations under the current denaturalization cases underscores national origin and are likely to make administration than under any of the missing procedural safeguards. people stateless. past eight administrations. These include: no right to counsel in civil In 2017 and 2018, countries with some of the highest The Trump administration filed three times as many proceedings (25% of defendants have no representation in denaturalizations were Mexico, civil denaturalization cases filed (29.5 per year) than representation); the routine inclusion of broad Haiti, and Nigeria. In his rhetoric, President Trump the last eight administrations’ average (12 per year). waivers of immigration defenses in settlements and has demeaned these countries, among others. Nearly In April 2019, the Department of Justice described plea agreements (these agreements abandon half of all cases filed targeted citizens whose country the increase in referrals for prosecution as possible asylum claims and protection from removal of origin is a “special interest country,” which reflects “staggering.” By all publicly available accounts, when defendants would face torture); no protection the U.S. government’s decision to impose collective criminal denaturalization cases also rose, to an against removal during appeals, meaning defendants suspicion on individuals based on their country of average of 51 per year. can be removed while they are still defending their origin alone. These findings suggest U.S. citizens are case; and the lack of any statute of limitations in civil being targeted based on their national origin, as a proceedings. proxy for race, ethnicity, and religion. The Trump administration is seeking to The Department of State retains undue The Department of State has failed to increase budgets for denaturalization discretion in revoking or denying implement recommendations by the as an immigration enforcement tool. passports and remedies for affected Office of Inspector General after its citizens are inadequate. recent investigation of passport denials. In its FY2019 budget, the Department of Homeland Security proposed the transfer of $207.6 million from When the Department of State decides to question an A 2016 investigation into passport denials affecting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ individual’s citizenship, it is empowered to demand Yemeni-Americans revealed a woeful lack of (USCIS) Immigration Examinations Fee Account—the unlimited additional proof of U.S. citizenship. When coordination and oversight within the agency, fees paid by people in order to naturalize—to ICE for efforts to furnish such proof fail and individuals are including an absence of documentation on how denaturalizations and other immigration enforcement denied or deprived of passports, they face substantial policies are developed and applied. measures. In a FY2020 budget plan released in financial and legal hurdles to seek redress. The March 2019, the Department of Justice Civil Division number of passport cases in South Texas has projected an “ever-increasing” caseload in a bid for increased since 2017 and more resources are being increased resources to match demand. devoted to defending the agency’s actions. DENATURALIZATION: A RADICAL MEASURE 29.5 Why is naturalized citizenship Average Number of Denaturalization fundamental to American democracy? Cases Filed per Year, by Administration The United States is home to over 21 18.9 17 million naturalized citizens. Naturaliza- 15.8 tion is a crucial tool for integration of immigrant communities and the vibrancy of American life. Under the Fourteenth 7.8 Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, U.S. 4 citizens born or naturalized in the U.S. 3.3 1 1 are equal under the law and hold the same rights. Nixon Ford Carter Reagan Bush Sr. Clinton Bush Obama Trump How has denaturalization policy changed? These are just a few hundred cases – why should it matter for millions of naturalized Americans? From the 1960s to the early 2000s, denaturalization cases were extremely rare. Denaturalization was largely considered a last The hundreds of naturalized citizens fighting in U.S. courts resort to be applied only against the worst of the worst, such as today are canaries in the coalmine. Massive resources are being alleged Nazis and other war criminals who had deliberately mobilized to torment a miniscule fraction of the U.S. population concealed their identity to avoid justice. Since the early 2000s, with insufficient procedural safeguards in place to check the criteria for denaturalization have quietly expanded to abusive practices. These practices are unwise. Their true include national security cases, for example, and today purpose is opaque at best, and they ultimately destabilize the denaturalization is increasingly used as an immigration security of citizenship for all Americans. enforcement tool. Countries with high representation of denaturalizations under Trump Administration and statelessness risk Pakistan Mexico 7 cases Bangladesh 18 cases Haiti 8 cases 12 cases India Nigeria 17 cases 8 cases Statelessness Risk Possible Statelessness Risk Low Statelessness Risk DENIAL AND REVOCATION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP DOCUMENTATION Taking away someone’s passport (or refusing to issue one) can stripped of their passports and struggling to afford the costs of have the same practical effect as denaturalization – leaving the going to court to prove that they are, in fact, Americans. The affected person without the ability to leave or return to the U.S. if current administration is breaking with past practice and now they are abroad. In the Rio Grande Valley, affected individuals who defends these cases regardless of the merits, rather than settling, have lived as U.S. citizens for decades suddenly find themselves and in the process is wasting resources badly needed elsewhere. Maria and Antonio started to plan In January 2017, as Donald Trump was their future together, beginning with a taking office, Maria was stopped at the wedding in Texas. Maria applied for a border and her U.S. passport was fiancé visa for Antonio, and the two of confiscated. Later, she was told the them, plus Maria’s mother, traveled to revocation was due to the existence of a the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez Mexican birth certificate in her name. for interviews. But during the But since she does not have a Mexican interviews, Maria’s mother was taken birth certificate, Maria has another away and interrogated for two and a theory: “Just having a Hispanic last name half hours. Denied even a sip of water, … that’s all you need for them to be she was browbeaten and insulted: triggered to investigate you,” she says. told to admit that Maria had not been Maria born in the U.S., and told to admit that Finally, in January 2019, after fighting the she did not even know who Maria’s U.S. government in court, she was able to Born in Brownsville, Texas, Maria grew up biological father was. get a new passport. Today, Maria is four in Reynosa, Mexico. In her final year of months pregnant. She knows that Antonio high school, she had a serious boyfriend, Antonio’s visa was denied and he was will not be with her when she is due, and Antonio, but also serious intentions to forced to remain in Reynosa. Instead of she will have to deliver their first child achieve a college degree. Maria moved to starting their new life in Texas, Maria alone. But she is as determined and Edinburg, Texas, where she studied moved to Mexico, where she and Antonio optimistic as ever: “I’m really looking accounting, earning first a bachelor’s were married. She commuted daily to her forward to starting a family and seeing my degree and then a master’s degree. job on the U.S. side of the border. kids grow up here … I really love the U.S.” Maria’s story is not an anomaly. The lack of adequate legal and policy protections has led to targeting and state- sanctioned profiling based on race, gender, and class, with disastrous consequences for targeted communities. Political Attacks on Citizenship by Birth In October 2018, President Trump suggested that he could sign these legal debates, the focus should be on the implications of the an executive order that would reinterpret the Fourteenth President’s proposal alongside his administration’s embrace of Amendment’s Citizenship Clause to take away the right to U.S. nativism, and other destabilizing practices. A comparative case citizenship for children born to non-U.S.
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