Speech #830114757

Section 3 of the bill gives the Attorney General the right to deport those who have lost their citizenship as a result of conspiring. advocating. or teaching the overthrow of the Government by force and violence. A person who knowingly violates the Smith Act. or related acts. has. as is indicated by the President. forfeited allegiance to the United States and demonstrated that he no longer owes allegiance to this country. This is a nation largely made up of immigrants and their original states have often made claim to the allegiance of immigrants who had become United States citizens. That was the basis of the old claim: "Once an Englishman. always an Englishman." By the second half of the 19th century this problem of dual nationality had grown to one of some significance. In 1868 Congress declared expatriation to be a "natural and inherent right of all people." This. of course. did not resolve the many problems that continued to arise with foreign nations and in 1907 Congress adopted the first general expatriation statute. That act imposed expatriation as a consequence of naturalization in a foreign country. taking an oath of allegiance to a foreign state. or of marriage by a United States woman citizen to a foreign national. The constitutionality of that act. as it related to a United States woman citizen who married a foreigner was taken to the Supreme CourtMacKenzie v. Hare (239 U.