This post from Andy Sundberg is on: THE EVOLUTION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP LEGISLATION SINCE THE FIRST CONGRESS IN 1789
This is the 5th in a series of posts from Andy Sundberg, Fellow and Secretary of the Overseas American Academy, where he discusses US citizenship taxation and related matters.
The other four have been posted under these titles and located at these links.
After Five Decades of Abuse, Enough is Enough!
What is the Real Size of the U.S. Federal Tax code?
Tracking Foreign Tax legislation in Congress
What is the Systemic Risk to the World’s Economy..
As an educational reference source, attached is the latest updated version of the history of U.S. Citizenship Law, from the time it was first adopted by the First U.S. Congress, through all of the subsequent innovations, amendments and court rulings up until today.
US Citizenship Law History OAA 2012
Included in this opus are brief summaries of a number of the important efforts that have been made by individual overseas Americans, and overseas American organizations, to try to bring a greater amount of reason, fairness and equity into this difficult legislative domain.
You will also discover that while the United States was a major participant in drafting the UN Declaration of the Rights of a Child, in 1959, it was thereafter very reluctant to ever sign it, and this signature only took place 36 years later in 1995. Signed yes, but still not ratified! As of today, in late February 2012, the United States and Somalia stand alone as the only two remaining countries in the world that have not yet carried out this ratification.
And while we are at it, it is also worth mentioning how truly extraordinary it is that Somalia’s neighbor on the Horn of Africa, Eritrea, also happens to be the only other country in the world that mimics that other highly self-destructive U.S. practice of taxing those living abroad on the basis of their home country citizenship!
Read, enjoy and please share your comments and suggestions on this updated history, because they would be very much appreciated.
All the very best and take care,
Andy Sundberg
Fellow and Secretary
Overseas American Academy
157 Route du Grand Lancy
1213 Onex, Geneva , Switzerland
Tel: 41-22-792 1659
Mob: 41-79-203 8621
Email: andy@sundberg.com
Below is one of four points Sundberg lists under
1986 – THE “IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1986”:
Previously, if a US citizen was also a citizen of a foreign country, had spent one or more periods of time in that country totalling at least ten years, and performed any of the listed actions that could result in loss of US citizenship, the action in question would be conclusively presumed to have been performed voluntarily and without duress (i.e., the person in question would not have a legal right to present contrary evidence in a court case). This provision had been put on shaky ground as a result of the “Terrazas” ruling, and it is now repealed. (p. 17)
From where we sit now in 2012, this looks like a useful provision! So much could be solved so easily if the United States would administratively revert to a kinder and legal version of this practice – namely, to allow persons who have met the physical absence test of ten years, coupled with an action like acquiring another citizenship (1) to assert relinquishment (2) to skip the convoluted assessment crap (3) to eliminate the $450 head tax (4) to cut loose from the bureaucratic footdragging on CLN issuance.
Right now the United States is brewing up a big batch of former citizens who will never have much good to say about that overbearing Uncle whose clutches are being made so difficult to break free from.
We are becoming runaway slaves who cannot find an effective border anywhere in the world.
The US cheapens their citizenship by making it so easy to get illegally. “Jus solis” citizenship laws are completely out of whack with how mobile people in the 21st century are and the reality of “birth tourism” needs to be tackled. Ireland was the last EU country to get rid of jus solis just a few years back – It had become notorious for immigrants who wanted to move to the UK to give birth in Ireland, move to the UK and then claim “a right to family life” so that they couldn’t be deported. This was a sham and it has thankfully been dealt with.
I suppose though that the US’s new tax drive will “pay retribution” on the birth tourists in the years to come though as the IRS sifts through the joint accounts held by parents and their US-born children and demand FBAR penalties. This is really a cruel world that we live in.
What would really be scary though is if the US got rid of jus solis and then relaxed the jus sanguinis rules to make citizenship transferable over multiple generations born outside the US like many Mediterranean countries do. Maybe they could even make it retroactive…better look out Conferados!
@Don, I USED TO BE scared about your last paragraph, but not so anymore. If a foreign born “US Person” like my son never gets an American passport, or ever goes to America, there is little chance that they will go after him. Why would they waste those kinds of resources trying to find someone that doesn’t even know that they are American?
@ geeez
I completely agree with you. If the US has no record of them, how will they ever know. If their birth certificate indicates they are born (anywhere but US) are they going to make someone prove on the spot by showing marriage certificates, school records etc to prove they are US citizens. Seems unlikely to me.
Friends,
I think that my comments tend to get lost in translation a lot on this site! I tend to write tongue in cheek or in jest a lot of the time mainly because otherwise I would feel much too gloomy to visit the site if I couldn’t make fun of how ridiculous the whole situation is!
The technology to do what I described simply does not exist in the present day. Will the US government have developed the technology or ability required to track down all of the unreported US citizens in 30 years’ time? Only time will tell.
@Don Pomodoro…
I like tongue in check, there just isn’t a good icon for that yet! 🙂
As for technological advancements, it is only a matter of time. Of course private industry is way ahead on tracking your every move. That is why I have quit using google, except rarely and use Duck Duck go as a search engine to help offset the tracking that Twitter does!.
Government, is really backwards, technologically speaking, but they do catch up. 3 years ago, I was thinking oh surely they won’t be linking passports to tax records, will they…. and yet… I think the evidence is beginning to show they are moving that way. This all will happen in less than 30 years. Just look at how quickly things have progressed on the web online banking, podcasts, blogging, and streaming video in the matter of a very short number of years, to say nothing about the smart phone GPS tracking and explosion of cool tracking aps. Hell, you can now buy your own personal drone or do your own remote surveillance of your house. Everyone is on google earth street view. The tools for tracking us all, just keep expanding exponentially. It is a new world order, and there seems to be no escaping it. The NSA is probably recording this as I type! 🙂
No, I am not paranoid, just being a fatalist and looking at the reality of the evolutionary/revolutionary change mode we are in.