Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 53 Comments

This story is now live.

************
Among them, me.

“We the people….” declared the script inside her U.S. passport — now with four holes punched through it from cover to cover. Her departure from life as an American was stamped final on the same page: “Bearer Expatriated Self.”

In our several discussions, I had asked Adam if he learned about U.S. citizenship-based taxation in his U.S. schooling. His answer, once again: “No”. I appreciate the care and time Adam Geller took to illustrate that most who renounce U.S. citizenship do not fit the stereotype of FATCAT / tax evader / traitor. Ours should be the real story of renunciations.

This is a U.S. journalist who spent a lot of time talking with me, making sure he understood my story and, I’m sure, the same with the others in this AP article. You even get to see a pretty scruffy 70 year old me and my 73 year old husband who now has this strange woman for his wife.

53 thoughts on “Associated Press, Adam Geller, interviews persons who don’t fit the stereotype…”

  1. Calgary, the link doesn’t work, nor does the link to the article from Google work. Not sure what’s going on.

  4. I hope this link (that says ADVANCE) will stay up.

    OK — I see that this is just one of the pictures of the story. I will update when the story appears, hopefully, as it says, April 27th.

    So, sorry, this is at this point you will see just a picture of the scruffiness of a couple Calgary U.S. renunciants. There are pictures of others (including my children when they were much, much younger) that will be used in the April 27th story: http://siouxcityjournal.com/search/?l=&s=&q=renounce.

  6. Interesting – thanks, not amused. And, thanks to Pacifica for the first find of this. She is good!!

  7. I think it’s embargoed till Sunday. The Sioux City Journal published it by accident, and has since taken it down.

  9. Thanks, Calgary. When I found Mr. Geller’s article around 0700 EDT this morning, the complete article was on-line. (I remember thinking it a little strange that only one paper had published an AP article — now I get it.). At any rate, I read the article quickly (I figured I’d read it at my leisure later) and I really liked it. My reaction was that Adam Geller understands and presents the true story.

  10. @calgary, very effective disguise. Where are your ‘fatcat’ trappings? The oodles of bling and private Lear Jet at the ready – in order to visit those so-called ‘foreign offshore’ accounts cleverly ‘hidden’ in plain sight – locally, where you live and are a citizen, in Canada, which US FATCA is poised to obliterate come Canada Day?

    FATCA is reminiscent of the baseless US claims of hidden WMDs used to legitimate the invasion of another nation. Convenient and cynical rationale deliberately crafted and sold to the US public to legitimize some desired political agenda or aim. Apparently Canada is just crawling with Canadians who are also ‘US taxpayers’ who haven’t paid double taxes – which the US claims is their ‘fair share’ of the US national debt – and which Harper has chosen to use Canadian taxpayer money to assist the US Treasury suck our legal local assets out of Canada to do so. He and the Conservative MPs who voted for the FATCA IGA add their support to that convenient chimera by signing over Canadian taxpayers and abrogating our Charter via the IGA. Why? Because Canada is infested with far too many ordinary Canadian families trying to save for education, retirement and disability? Because for Harper, Canadian families with any member of US origin or parentage are unimportant – and surplus to his requirements? Are no Canadian principles, citizens or creatures too sacred or too vulnerable to sacrifice in the holy Harper quest for the XL pipeline? Along with endangered humpback whales, ( http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/why-is-the-humpback-only-special-now-that-gateway-beckons/article18113453/ ) the Conservatives will apparently thrown in to the pot whatever and whoever is an obstacle to appease the US and attain their end goals.

  12. @Badger, “FATCA is reminiscent of the baseless US claims of hidden WMDs used to legitimate the invasion of another nation. Convenient and cynical rationale deliberately crafted and sold to the US public to legitimize some desired political agenda or aim.”

    Knife goes in, knife is twisted.

    Touche…….so true.

  13. badger,

    Pretty good, eh? I use that disguise every Canadian day, a few more layers in the winter. Perhaps I can include the link with future correspondence and submissions to my Canadian government representatives.

  14. I love the young Canadian cowboy and cowgirl. Most of all, I love the African American basketball player being welcomed in Taiwan.

    QuincyDavis III says: “Here everyone is so nice. They invite you into their homes, they’re so hospitable. … There’s no crime, no guns. I can’t help but love this place.”

  15. Good for you, Calgary411.

    I note the caption repeats the canard that US citizenship is a “highly sought prize”. This is just a great big assumption. Here is Peter J. Spiro:

    “…More significant than the absolute number of applications, the proportion of foreign-born residents who naturalize has been steadily decreasing, from 63.6 percent in 1970 to 37.4 percent in 2000. Even controlling for length of residence, the naturalization rate has declined precipitously. Among those foreigners in the United States for ten to fourteen years, for instance, the proportion naturalized has fallen from 57.5 percent to 29.4 percent.”

    Peter J. Spiro, Beyond citizenship: American identity after globalization. Oxford, 2008. p. 58.

  17. Wow, Northernshrike, and that was written before the 2009 OVD program! Of course the home landers will tell you that it’s because it’s so easy to stay in the US illegally.

  18. NorthernShrike, thanks for noting the absolute decrease in the numbers who naturalize to U.S. citizenship vs. the perception or official stance! That’s quite a drop that Peter J. Spiro noted in 2008.

    bubblebustin, what can I say but thanks for how YOU see us?

  19. @bubblebustin

    *easy to stay in the US illegally*

    I know some people in the states who have/are *over staying* their welcome… living, working, & sending money home… As long as they stay in the US & not cross borders… they have no problems. But starting in July… Canadians who are illegally in the US… they will have a harder time going back & forth because there will be a record of them… Who knows what info is on the database.

    I wonder if this is another way to root out the illegals.

  20. @northernshrike
    thank you forthe cross post from peter J spiro re: absolute declinein naturalisations for foreign residents.
    eye popping stuff

  21. Reminds me of my father, who lived in the US for many years on a green card with his (American) 3rd wife, but never gave up his Canadian passport. Everytime he crossed the border into the US the border agent would ask him when he was planning on getting citizenship. “Never, I have no desire for US citizenship” he would say. They were always horrified. I guess they couldn’t imagine why anyone would not want it! But now that there are plenty of other good citizenships to have, what benefit is there to being a citizen of the US?

  22. On US citizenship…

    What’s really valued is the green card or other arrangements allowing permanent residence and working in the US. As Spiro notes elsewhere, what does citizenship get you? Answer: the right to vote and the right to stay, i.e. cannot be extradited for criminal offence. BUT, most Americans themselves don’t vote, so that is unlikely to be valued. And those who avoid criminal activity — that is, most people — are not at risk of extradition.

    In Canada, I think what is really valued is the passport, but that is another story.

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