My husband is a naturalized citizen (he was Canadian but was naturalized in his mid 40's.)
Anyhoo, it is my understanding that the US does not recognize Dual Citizenship. When my husband took his "oath", he in effect, renounced his Canadian citizenship.
However, these requirements differ from country to country, so in Canada he may be viewed as a dual citizen, but from the standpoint of the American government, he does not have dual citizenship.
Makes you wonder about the circumstances of these Lebanese claiming to have "dual citizenship."
Essentially it's determined by the laws of the "other" country, not the US. I believe Canada would consider your husband a Canadian citizen unless he took action in Canada to renounce his citizenship, if he can. If that's true, in the context of an article like this he'd hold dual citizenship. Same with an American going to Canada. Becoming a Canadian citizen doesn't constitute a renouncement of American citizenship. The draft dodgers of the 60s-70s would have loved that. I suspect a lot of these people consider themselves Lebanese.
There's also the issue of people who are dual citizens by birth (i.e., they meet the legal requirements for citizenship in two countries simply because of where they were born and the nationalities of their parents).
FOX said yesterday that any American evacuations were not going to recognize dual citizenship.
Dawn, and FReepers, here's the state of dual citizenship law: once it was banned. You were an American, period, or you were something else.
Now if you are entitled to US citizenship and entitled also to foreign citizenship by birthright, you may claim that citizenship. This came about because of Jews who want to have both Israeli and US citizenship, and have a strong voice in Congress. They wanted the change because anti-Semites in the USA could make it hard for someone who served in a foreign military or political office, for instance, under the old Neutrality Act.
Put the irony is, this law that was meant to accommodate these Jews who pose no imaginable threat to the USA, of course applies equally to all. Mexico recently permitted its diaspora to claim citizenship. Irish can do it as long as the Irish ancestor is within three generations. And many third-worldian hellholes let their citizens take US citizenship while retaining loyalties to the home turf -- Lebanon, for instance.
Schulssel is certainly wrong to imply that all the dual citizens are Hezbollah fans, or that all the Americans stranded are dual citizens. But the time is long past to end the dual citizenship charade. You're an American, or you ain't. When I hear "dusl citizen" I immediately process it as "disloyal" -- Shia, Christian, Jewish, Lebanese, Mexican, Israeli, it doesn't matter, pick up another passport and your loyalty to the US is compromised.
If you guys think this NEO is a nightmare, imagine what Tel Aviv would be like, if the Israelis lose. How many dual citizens in Israel? A million?
And they'd all come here and immmediately start voting for left-wing Democrats. Therefore it is strongly in the US national interest that Israel win its wars.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I think the law has been changed. I've read it before, IIRC, on the State Dept website...