Politically Correct France Quarrels Over Revoking Citizenship of Terrorists

If you thought that the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris last year finally forced the entire Left in France to get rid of political correctness, you're sorely -- and sadly -- mistaken:     The push by France's Socialist government to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists with dual nationality after the Paris attacks has turned into a harsh political dispute, with the far right applauding the move while some on the left express indignation at what they call a divisive measure.

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After 5 Years Refugees Can Become Citizens, Says State Dept. Official

After five years in the United States as part of a resettlement program, refugees can apply for U.S. citizenship, according to a State Department official. --Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said his bureau has provided more than $3 billion in fiscal year 2015 for refugees.

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US authorities allege Oregon imam assisted radicals

U.S. authorities are seeking to revoke the citizenship of an Oregon imam who they say tried to conceal past associations with radical Islamic groups. Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye raised money, recruited fighters and provided training for insurgent groups battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Justice says in a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Read more at the Associated Press
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Voting-Rights Advocates Get Win at Supreme Court

Monday’s big election law news came from the Supreme Court’s penultimate decision of the term upholding Arizona’s congressional districts. --But before handing down its last three decisions, the court made voting-rights advocates happy by deciding not to review a different election case. --“Arizona citizens can continue to participate in voter registration drives without worrying about not having proof of citizenship documents,” Shirley Sandelands of the League of Women Voters of Arizona said in a statement Monday. --The case, Kobach, et al. v. Election Assistance Commission, et al., was about whether Arizona and Kansas could require voters to prove their citizenship when registering to vote with the so-called federal form.

Read more at Roll Call
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Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum changes that would promote patriotism

ARVADA, Colo. – Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, in a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay.

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House Republicans Work Immigration Behind Scenes

AP - Immigration overhaul legislation has been dormant in the House for months, but a few Republicans are working behind the scenes to advance it at a time the Capitol is immersed in a partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack Obama's health care law. ✧ The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, has been discussing possible legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. He's also been working with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginia Republican, on a bill offering citizenship to immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. ✧ Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Ted Poe, R-Texas, are working on a plan to create a visa program allowing more lower-skilled workers into the country. Read more at ABC News...

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Redesigned Citizenship Test

Fox News, September 28, 2007

Citizenship and Immigration Services released on Thursday the pool of 100 civics and history questions that could be asked of people wanting to become naturalized Americans.

They will begin using the new citizenship test Oct. 1, 2008. Just as with the current test, applicants will have to answer correctly six of 10 questions asked orally and pass the English proficiency portion of the exam.

About 42 civics questions were dropped or revised to reach the final 100. Among those that were dropped was, "Who said 'Give me liberty or give me death?'" The answer is Patrick Henry, a colonial American revolutionary. See the 100 questions (with answers) that made the cut here (PDF Format).

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U.S. Senate: Immigration Bill defeated... again

(CNN) Thursday, June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Opponents effectively killed President Bush's long-fought and emotion-laden Senate immigration bill Thursday when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation. The tally was 46 to 53, 14 votes shy of the 60 needed to end debate. [Interesting map]

[...] The bill aimed to create a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants and to toughen border security. Explaining his reasons for voting against the bill, GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading critic of the measure, said "it would not work."

"Our analysis was that it would result in 8.7 million more people in the next 20 years here illegally," said the Alabama senator.

[...] Enforcement issues were a main concern for Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who said his vote against the bill sent a crystal clear message "that the American people want us to start with enforcement, both at the border and at the workplace, and don't want promises. They want action, they want results, they want proof, because they've heard all the promises before."

Sessions said there would be "no permanent hard feelings over this among the people who wanted to pass a bill they thought would help America." Backers of the bill, Sessions said, were simply "trying to work a compromise to pass something" and called on members next time to pass legislation that "will work."

[...] On Wednesday, supporters beat back a number of potentially fatal amendments.

Proponents won a major victory with defeat of an amendment removing the bill's most controversial feature -- a path to legalization and eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country, which critics charge amounts to amnesty.

Also defeated Wednesday was an amendment by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would have required adult illegal immigrants to return to their home country within two years in order to apply for a new type of visa that will allow them to stay in the United States indefinitely.

CNN Correspondents Dana Bash and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.

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American Legion Strategy

From Numbers USA: The American Legion – the nation's largest veterans organization - is calling on Congress to reject proposed legislation that would grant "fast track" citizenship, or amnesty, to illegal aliens and to reduce the illegal alien population through aggressive enforcement of immigration laws and stronger border security.

On May 10, the Legion's National Executive Committee outlined a five-point strategy to address illegal immigration, which includes:

• Securing the borders and coastline points of entry;
• Removing the jobs magnet by imposing and enforcing employer sanctions;
• Eliminating most social services benefits for illegal immigrants;
• Promoting a strategy of attrition through enforcement; and
• Effectively screening and tracking foreign visitors in the U.S.

In a press release, National Commander Paul A. Morin said “[The immigration] system is broken and it needs fixing, and the solutions being tossed around by some members of Congress are not in the best interest of this country."

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Citizenship & Immigration

The Claremont Institute, Posted March 12, 2007,

The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration: Principles and Challenges in America (by Edward J. Erler, John Marini, and Thomas G. West; published February 2007) is a volume in the Claremont Institute's series on Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. The series attempts to address issues of contemporary importance in terms of America's founding principles, a kind of resort to first principles. The underlying premise of the series is a belief in the continuing vitality of the founding principles.

In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison remarked that "he wished to maintain the character of liberality which had been professed in all the Constitutions & publications of America. He wished to invite foreigners of merit & republican principles among us. America," he concluded, "was indebted to emigration for her settlement & Prosperity." It was clearly understood by Madison and the rest of the framers that control over immigration was a matter of sovereign prerogative and that regime principles should dictate the prudential decisions as to the kind of immigrants—if any—that would benefit the regime.

Those of "merit" would, of course, be most useful to the country and a vital component of their merit would be attachment to republican principles and the capacity to live an active life in accordance with those principles. The current debate about immigration is vitiated by the fact that our policymakers no longer believe that there are regime principles or that questions of merit and character have anything to do with immigration.

Ever since the Progressives advocated racially based immigration policies—claiming to have discovered scientifically provable superiorities and inferiorities among races—any attempt to introduce the issue of character or merit into the immigration debate has been dismissed as racist. The Progressives were wrong in their advocacy of race-based policies and their theories have been discredited. But the Progressive legacy lives on, making genuine debate about immigration issues almost impossible. The issue of the character of potential citizens is not a racial issue; it is a regime issue.

Character—the capacity to live a life befitting republican citizens—is, as Madison indicated, crucial to the debate about immigration. This volume seeks to revive the issue of republican character in the current immigration debate and to elucidate the constitutional foundations of American citizenship.

Edward J. Erler
Series Editor

Edward J. Erler is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute.

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