Claiming there is no clearer “renunciation of (U.S.) citizenship than choosing to join ISIS,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas plans to file the Expatriate Terrorist Act (E.T.A.) of 2014 when the Senate returns to work on Monday, September 8th.
Currently, it’s believed that over a dozen Americans may be fighting with ISIS, while other sources claim it to be as high as 115. Recently, the number of Americans, as well as other foreign nationals, now aligned with ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups in the Middle-East has been both growing and much in the news.
Cruz’s office released the following statement.
“Americans who choose to go to Syria or Iraq to fight with vicious ISIS terrorists are party to a terrorist organization committing horrific acts of violence, including beheading innocent American journalists who they have captured,” said Sen. Cruz. “There can be no clearer renunciation of their citizenship in the United States, and we need to do everything we can to preempt any attempt on their part to re-enter our country and carry out further attacks on American civilians.”
The ETA amends an existing statute that provides certain actions by which a United States citizen renounces their citizenship to include becoming a member of, fighting for, or providing material assistance to a designated foreign terrorist organization that is working to attack the United States or its citizens. Provided the requirements of due process are observed, if a U.S. Citizen undertakes these acts with the intent of supplanting his U.S. Citizenship with loyalty to a terrorist organization, that person can be deemed to have forfeited their right to be a United States Citizen and return to the United States.