Australia to Strip Dual Citizens of Citizenship for Terror Activities
(CNSNews.com) – At a time when legislation introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to deprive Americans who join terror groups of their citizenship faces Democratic opposition, Australian lawmakers have passed a comparable measure.
Australian terror suspects with dual citizenship will now be stripped of their Australian citizenship if they are involved in terror activity abroad, or convicted of a terrorism offence at home.
Legislation passed by the federal Senate late on Thursday will affect any person aged 14 or older, and in the case of a suspect whose activity takes place overseas, no conviction of a criminal offense will be necessary for the citizenship to be lost.
The legislation also allows the authorities to prevent any terrorist with dual nationality located abroad from returning to Australia, and to expel dual nationals who engage in terror activities in Australia, wherever possible.
The government estimates that as many as half of the at least 100 Australians who are fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) or other terror groups in the Middle East, mostly in Syria and Iraq, have dual nationality.
Attorney-General George Brandis and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a joint statement that the legislation “updates and modernizes a long standing provision of Australian law to reflect the new age of terrorism.”
“The changes to the existing legislation were necessary to reflect the current threat that Australia and the rest of the world faces,” it said.
“Dual nationals who engage in terrorism are betraying their allegiance to this country and do not deserve to be Australian citizens.”
The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill passed its third reading by a vote of 43-13, supported by the two major parties. Opposition came from the liberal Australian Greens and a handful of independents.
Greens Senator Nick McKim argued during the debate that the legislation “does not provide judicial fairness or natural justice to potentially-impacted Australian citizens” and runs contrary to Australia’s international obligations.
“The best place for Australian citizens who are violent extremists is prosecuted, convicted, locked up in Australian prisons for a long time where they can do no further harm – not exported into a global marketplace of disenfranchised, violent people,” he said.
Australia’s threat level is currently set at “probable” – the third-highest ranking after “certain” and “expected.”
According to the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), that means that “credible intelligence indicates that individuals or groups have developed both the intent and capability to conduct a terrorist attack in Australia.”
Several other Western countries have made similar amendments to citizenship legislation in recent years in response to the growing terror threat, including Canada and Britain.
In Canada, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act allows the government to revoke Canadian citizenship of dual citizens convicted of terrorism, high treason or spying offences, or are members of an armed force or organized armed group that is engaged in armed conflict with Canada.
In Britain, amendments last year to the British Nationality Act make it possible for the government to revoke citizenship of dual nationals if doing so is considered to be conducive to the public good.
Controversially the amendment also allows the stripping of citizenship of non-British-born “naturalized” citizens even if they do not have another country’s citizenship as well, thus rendering them stateless. That action would only be taken if the person is considered to have acted in a way seriously prejudicial to Britain’s vital interests, and if there are reasonable grounds to believe the person could acquire another nationality.
In the United States, a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling almost half a century ago held that the U.S. Congress has no general power to revoke American citizenship – natural or naturalized – without consent, and that citizens alone may themselves voluntarily relinquish their citizenship.
But an American can forfeit U.S. citizenship if he or she enters the armed forces of a foreign enemy state. Joining a non-state group such as ISIS or al-Qaeda does not qualify, however.
Last month, Democrats blocked movement on legislation sponsored by Cruz under which Americans who join terrorist groups abroad would renounce their U.S. citizenship.
Speaking on the Senate floor on November 19, Cruz said that his Expatriate Terrorist Act, introduced last January, “provides that any American citizen who goes and joins ISIS, who takes up arms against America and attempts to wage jihad, by doing so forfeits his or her U.S. citizenship.”
“Existing federal law provides for grounds of revocation of citizenship,” he said. “This would add joining terrorist groups like ISIS to those grounds.”
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