Speech #830221164

This legislation does not represent a problem entirely new in the field of our legislation pertaining to nationality. The basic concept of expatriation has been accepted by our laws and sustained by the highest courts of the land since 1868 and restated in every important enactment pertaining to nationality. such as the acts of 1907. 1940. and 1952. All of these statutes have been upheld by the courts who have always recognized the power of Congress to provide the grounds for the forfeiture of United States nationality. whether acquired at birth or by naturalization. The basic decision in that field is the one entered in the case of Perkins v. Elg (307 U. S. 327). I may add. incidentally. that that decision was written by none other than Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Section 349 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. which we are about to amend. provides in subdivision (9) that nationality shall be deemed to have been lost by nativeborn or naturalized citizens for committing any act of treason against the United States. By passing today H. R. 7130. as amended by the Committee on the Judiciary. the House would simply place the voluntary stooges of the international Communist conspiracy in the category of traitors to their own country.