Replies

"But why would a Conservative British MP be put on an Terrorist Watch List just because he was born in America?"

It's not because he was born in America, it's because he's become a British MP. IIRC, you cannot hold a position in a foreign government, and retain your US citizenship. If I did something like that, I'd also lose my military retirement check, as well. The one thing that would indicate that he did not INTEND to give up his US citizenship would be to maintain his US passport. If he didn't intend to maintain his US citizenship, he's supposed to renounce it in front a State Department official, but having done so publicly, in writing, is quite likely to have that effect anyway.

I don't mind people becoming so enamoured of a foreign country that they live there full time. I've got friends who do so in Germany and Britain, in point of fact. They also maintain their US passports, though. If I hadn't had children, I could have done so with the Republic of Turkey, myself. For that matter, I don't mind foreigners who want to reside here, as long as they follow the legal procedures to do so. However, if Mr. Johnson doesn't want us, we don't want him, either. At all.

" It's not because he was born in America, it's because he's become a British MP."

That doesn't appear anywhere in the article and certainly isn't what Boris is saying that US customs said to him. He hasn't recently become an MP by the way, he was elected in 2001.

"you cannot hold a position in a foreign government, and retain your US citizenship"

Again, they didn't say he had to renounce his citizenship. They said that if he retained his US citizenship, he could not use his British passport to enter the US, despite the fact that he is British.

The one thing that would indicate that he did not INTEND to give up his US citizenship would be to maintain his US passport

But Sir, he didn't maintain it. Otherwise American customs would hardly have asked him to regain it. And nor was any of this about Boris Johnson being an awesome potentate of Her Majesty's Britannic Empire. American Customs didn't know he was a Member of Parliament when they stopped him.

This article was about the unusual "clinginess" of the technical definition of American citizenhood. Not about anything else. I can't see why 97% of posters to this thread are horribly affronted by Boris cutting his purely notional tie with America. He is not an American. He does not live there. Boris likes America and defends it in print - and in the article clearly regards it as the great hope of mankind - despite the inane quirks of its customs office..

Sorry, absolutely got to get home now

IIRC, you cannot hold a position in a foreign government, and retain your US citizenship.

Well, sort of. According to the State Department website, if you hold a non-policy level position in a foreign government, the State Department will presume that you don't intend to renounce your citizenship. But if you voluntarily hold a policy level position (like being a Member of Parliament), the presumption is that you intended to renounce your citizenship. I don't think you officially lose your citizenship, though, unless you file the necessary paperwork with an overseas consulate or some sort of administrative action is brought against you.

The United States is hardly the only country that requires its citizens to enter and leave the country using that country's passport, by the way.

Most U.S. airports don't have sterile international transit areas, like in Europe. Thus, people transiting from Europe to Mexico could theoretically leave the airport while en-route. Houston's new international terminals might be able to be set up as a sterile area, but currently isn't, since ICE regulations require visas for transit through a sterile area anyway.