Ted Cruz: ‘Americans What To Join ISIS? REVOKE Citizenship!’

Every now and then, there is a story in the news about an American who has gone to the Middle East to join ISIS. It’s always shocking whenever it happens and there are inevitably many questions about how to handle such a difficult situation. But now, Ted Cruz may just have the answer.

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Cruz is leading the push for Congress to pass legislation that would revoke the citizenship of any American who joins ISIS. “If an American citizen travels abroad and joins a terrorist group waging jihad on America, attempting to murder innocent Americans, this legislation would strip that individual of their U.S. citizenship, so that we would not have terrorists returning to America using U.S. passports,” he said.

For Cruz, banning entry from terrorist-friendly countries doesn’t completely solve the problem. According to Cruz, hundreds of Americans have attempted to join ISIS or other terrorist groups in the past few years. And these citizens — or green card holders — could, in theory, travel overseas, become a radicalized jihadi and then freely re-enter the United States. Stripping them of their citizenship would solve that problem.

He also expects the legislation to have bipartisan support. “This should be an idea that even Senate Democrats can support given that Hillary Clinton, when she was in the Senate, supported very similar legislation,” he said. Some have argued that the bill would give the federal government too much power, specifically in revoking citizenship without the proper due process first. Cruz’ bill would give the accused 60 days to appeal the decision. Predictably, the ACLU opposes the bill.

“The awesome and horrible power of being able to take away the citizenship of an American citizen would be turned over to an unnamed bureaucrat,” Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office, said last year. “It’s a highly unconstitutional bill. If it were to become law, I’m sure the Supreme Court would not let it stand.”

Cruz, however, argues that this is not the case, as the bill uses the same process that the government has used for almost 100 years, since 1926, allowing the government to revoke citizenship of Americans who join enemies of the United States. “This legislation is a common sense step to recognize that people can [wage] war against America in more ways than one,” Cruz said. “You don’t need to be a member of a nation-state military to be a terrorist at war with America.”

“Our office is conferring on a daily basis with the White House and new administration on this matter and a host of other matters as we work together to deliver on the promises made to the American people.”

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