- United States
- Ind.
- Letter
Opposition to the MAMDANI Act — Denaturalization Based on Political Belief
To: Rep. Spartz, Sen. Banks, Sen. Young
From: A verified voter in Westfield, IN
April 21
Dear Representative
I write as a constituent and a natural born U.S. citizen to urge your opposition to the MAMDANI Act.
This legislation would authorize the denaturalization and deportation of naturalized citizens based solely on political advocacy — including written expression, organizational membership, or ideological affiliation.
That is not a security measure. It is viewpoint-based punishment.
My specific concerns:
• First Amendment: The bill criminalizes protected political speech and association. Courts have consistently held that citizenship cannot be stripped for constitutionally protected belief or expression.
• Supreme Court precedent: Afroyim v. Rusk (1967) established that citizenship cannot be revoked without the individual’s voluntary intent to relinquish it. This bill circumvents that standard entirely.
• Scope creep: Defining deportable advocacy as possessing or distributing written material is dangerously broad. It targets expression, not conduct.
• Historical warning: The U.S. has been down this road — the Red Scare denaturalization campaigns of the 1940s stripped over 22,000 people of citizenship before the Supreme Court halted it in 1943.
The lesson was clear then.
Disagreement with someone’s politics is not grounds to erase their citizenship.
A government empowered to strip citizenship for holding the wrong beliefs is a threat to every citizen, not just the ones currently targeted.
I urge a firm no vote.
Respectfully,