It does not matter if individuals become naturalized citizens of the United States, so long as they retain the citizenship from wherever they came, they should not be allowed to serve in the American government.
Either they renounce their foreign citizenship, or stop serving in our government. And, it is more preferable that they self-deport if they feel strongly about keeping the other citizenship.
As founder John Jay expressed in 1787, “Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government.”
Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali and Sparkle Leah Sooknanan, two far-left appointees of former President Joe Biden, are perfect examples. Both are federal judges, both issue judicial decrees well outside what is in America’s best interests, and both are still citizens of foreign countries.
Sooknanan is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, while Ali is a citizen of Canada.
As is the problem with anyone retaining their citizenship in another country and then attempting to serve in another, it is unclear where their loyalties lie. For Ali and Sooknanan, whether in service to their home countries or not, it is quite clear they couldn’t care less about the United States.
In Sooknanan’s latest un-American activity, she blocked a flight of hundreds of trafficked Guatemalan children who were being sent back home to their families from leaving the United States.
The Guatemalan government already agreed to take them back, and as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said, “These smuggled migrant children were orphaned in America by the Biden Administration. The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala. But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents.”
“The government of Guatemala has formally requested their return,” Miller added. “And there are tens of thousands more smuggled minors orphaned in America by the Biden Administration that Democrats are refusing to allow back home with their families.”
Far from Sooknanan’s only attack on the interests of America and Americans, prior to being appointed by Biden (or, an autopen), she helped orchestrate the Department of Justice memo from Merrick Garland calling parents concerned about their children’s schooling “domestic terrorists.”
Democrats rammed Sooknanan through the Senate in the lame-duck session right after Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election and assumed office Jan. 2, 2025. It is the same story with Ali, whose nomination was approved 50-49 on Nov. 20, 2024, and assumed office two days later — all well after the election.
He became the first Muslim and Arab to serve on a federal D.C. court.
One of Ali’s first acts as a judge was ordering the Trump administration to distribute $2 billion in “foreign aid” without being able to verify how the money was being used. That funding explicitly cut USAID, which was revealed as one of the most sinister foreign policy tools, funding coups, transgenderism, and much more across the world.
There are other judges who were born in other countries who do not show the deep disdain Sooknanan and Ali do for the country that gave them citizenship.
Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho was born in Taiwan, but does not retain citizenship with that country, having been naturalized at the age of 9. He also has consistently ruled or espoused judicial philosophy as someone who understands the Constitution and the meaning of his own position of upholding it.
He is often cited as an obvious successor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The problem does not exclusively exist in the judicial branch. There are numerous members of Congress who clearly have loyalties elsewhere, whether born there, retaining citizenship there, or not. Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Randy Fine, R-Fla., and Brian Mast, R-Fla., are just a handful of examples. It would not be possible to list out the scores of congressional Democrats and Republicans who fly foreign flags outside their offices, who should also be added to the group.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has introduced a bill along with Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Clay Higgins, R-La., that would force political candidates to disclose dual citizenship as a minimal bar for running for office.
“Dual citizens elected to the United States Congress should renounce citizenship in all other countries,” Massie said. “At a minimum, they should disclose their citizenship in other countries and abstain from votes specifically benefitting those countries. If we are going to continue to allow Members of Congress to acquire and retain citizenship in other countries, they should at least be required to disclose to voters all countries of which they consider themselves to be citizens.”
His bill seems like a low bar, but it really only scratches the surface of dual loyalty problems from foreigners and American-born members alike.