Who are current (and additionally past) US Cabinet secretaries who hold foreign citizenships while serving?
This Wikipedia article list all foreign born ones (including famous ones like Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger), but it does not say whether they still hold the foreign nationalities while serving.
I don’t have a list, but:
For people like Albright, the limitation on dual citizenship is due to her country of birth; Czech(oslovakia) doesn’t recognize dual citizenship generally speaking (though she may have the clout to get it back if she tried). When running for President, it is customary to reject foreign citizenship (e.g. Ted Cruz), but it isn’t required, and isn’t expected at lower levels. This isn’t just the US; the three Baltic states have all had American or Canadian citizens who renounced their other citizenship when becoming eligible to run their countries.
Carl Schurz?
Do you mean that they don’t allow it? Not recognizing dual citizenship is a way of allowing it (it’s what the USA does).
Not sure I follow but: the US is 99.9999% fine with dual citizenship. It is a myth that it is not allowed; all we do is ask during naturalization to denounce foreign ties, and that has no relevance outside of war time. Some other countries are the same, but many others require to choose, usually by a certain age. Countries like the Czech Republic may make certain exceptions (e.g. if a renouncement was done under “duress” while say, leaving the country post-1968), but generally make you choose theirs or another.
It will be hard to tell for some people. It’s not like there’s a public registry of dual citizens. For example, it doesn’t appear that Sally Jewell has ever publicly spoken on the issue of her British citizenship. She could still be a citizen, or she renounced her citizenship at some point and never (it seems) made a public comment on the matter.
Sometimes people don’t actually know what countries they’re citizens of. I believe Ted Cruz didn’t know he was a Canadian citizen until just a couple of years ago, and Canada’s law relating to his situation is exceptionally clear. Someone in a more complicated situation might never be motivated to figure it out.
The other point to bear in mind is that in many countries the law makes limited or no provision for renouncing citizenship. There have been many natural-born US citizens who have had Irish citizenship by descent. Lots of them probably weren’t aware that they were Irish citizens and, even if they had been aware, in most cases they would not have been able to make an effective renunciation of their citizenship under Irish law. It wouldn’t amaze me if some of them had served in US Cabinet posts over the years.
They changed the rules in 2014 to harmonize with other EU states. CR will recognize dual citizenship from that date onwards. Anyone who had to give up their citizenship prior to that date can reclaim it now. (apart from Germans who were kicked out in 1945 for being Nazis) So if she wants an extra passport she can get it quite easily.
She grew up in Smichov which has been heavily regenerated in the past few years. I doubt she’d recognise her old haunts now as there’s a huge shopping mall where the train factory used to be.
More accurately, we just act as if the second citizenship doesn’t exist, at least during peacetime. So if you were to come back from overseas and go through customs as a foreign citizen, you could/would probably get in trouble for not doing so as an American citizen.
Also, if you hold American citizenship, you’re on the hook for US taxes, regardless of what other citizenships you hold and where you live. That’s probably the biggest practical consequence of our treatment of dual citizenship.
We don’t make people choose, but other countries may; a friend who used to have dual US/French citizenship (through descent) had to choose the US when he got called up for compulsory French military service, or else he would have had to go to France and be in the army for a couple of years.
Outside of that, renouncing a foreign citizenship is probably more of a demonstration than anything else; once you’re an American citizen, you’re assumed by the government to be one, and you’re on the hook for all responsibilities of a US citizen, regardless of where you came from and whatever legal status you may have there.
Interestingly if you’re family is from Iran it’s a good idea not to visit there because they’ll consider you a citizen and may induct you into the military for your compulsory service requirement.
You can also be (in your mind) a 100% US citizen and still be drafted into the South Korean Army.
This sort of dual-citizenship draft deals could potentially be interesting if a young person is made a cabinet secretary or some such and the other country decides to make a point and draft him/her.
The youngest cabinet secretary to date was (start a beat) Hamilton at 34. Interestingly he was born in the then British West Indies. So the Brits might have considered him one of theirs (for even non-impressment purposes) after the Revolution.
yes but joining the Korean Army, south anyway, probably won’t lose you your citizenship joining the Iranian Army is more likely to end up badly for you.
Right. Ted Cruz had no legal need to make a formal renouncement of Canadian citizenship, he had to do it for political image purposes.
As others have mentioned, there is the issue of countries that do not recognize emigration and naturalization in another nationality.
As to the scenario of another nation trying to screw with a cabinet member or elected official by drafting them or calling them to jury duty or trying to put in an account freeze, I think we can be pretty confident that the State Department will call them to advice that can cram it.
Well badly in general, sure, but not re: citizenship status if you were compelled – loss of citizenship requires your voluntary action (Afroyim v. Rusk).
This cuts both ways, though. The US has no objection to a US citizen holding a second citizenship, but it pays no attention to that second citizenship. But it must acknowledge that other countries have a right to take exactly the same stance (as, in fact, most of them do). If you’re a citizen of Umbrellastan and, as such, obliged to complete national service in the Umbrellastani armed forces, you can’t escape that obligation by pointing out that you’re also a citizen of another country. And it makes no difference if that other country happens to be the United States.
I think the scenario of another country trying to draft a US cabinet secretary is a fairly improbable one. If it were to arise, the US could certainly make representations to the other country. But the representations wouldn’t appeal to the draftee’s US citizenship; rather, they’d appeal to his important responsibilities in the US government, and the inconvenience that would be caused if he were prevented from discharging them, and they’d ask that in the interests of co-operation and goodwill between the two states he be excused from national service, or allowed to defer it until his US duties had been discharged.
I wonder what would happen if two different countries assert their conscription requirements on the same person. Or if one country conscripted a person already serving in the armed forces of another.
They can assert all they like; neither of them can actually draft you unless you are, in practical terms, within their jurisdiction. And it’s hard to see how you could simultaneously be within the jurisdiction of two countries.
An example more recent than Albright and Kissinger: Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, was born in Taiwan and moved to the US at age 8.
Since she’s female she was not subject to Taiwan’s universal conscription of males age 18.
Lacking a better word, I would say that “fine with dual citizenship. It is a fallacy that it is not allowed”. Since “myth” sort of implies that it was never true.
It has, at various times, been much easier to loose American citizenship than it is now.
Two anecdotes.
When my s0n graduated from College he was interviewed by a recruiter for NSA who told him that if he wanted to work at NSA he would be required to renounce his Canadian citizenship. I guess that is the .01% the US is not happy with. He wouldn’t to run for president, but to work for NSA he would.
A friend of a friend became president of Latvia, a mostly but not entirely honorary position. She was forced to renounce her Canadian citizenship. But a lawyer told her he could get it back in a week if she wanted to return to Canada. Apparently she doesn’t and is retired in Latvia.
Say a Korean national signs up for the US Army. They send him to South Korea, who now want to conscript him for themselves.
Not only this, but in most cases the Republic of Ireland treats descendants of Northern Irish citizens as their own for purposes of granting citizenship by descent.