Hamdi release agreement reached with State Department

YASER HAMDI CAN NO LONGER CLAIM TO BE AMERICAN CITIZEN

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the Department of Justice announced its settlement with enemy combatant Yaser Esam Hamdi, the Center for American Unity hailed it as another step forward for those challenging "drive-by" or "birthright citizenship."

The Justice Department statement by their spokesman, Mark Corallo, said: "The United States and enemy combatant Yaser Esam Hamdi and his counsel have signed an agreement that allows Hamdi to be released from United States custody and transferred to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The agreement requires Hamdi, once he arrives in Saudi Arabia, to renounce any claim he has to U.S. citizenship and abide by strict travel restrictions."

"The key words in the Justice Department Statement are 'renounce any claim he has to U.S. citizenship,'" explained Edith Hakola, Executive Vice-President of the Center for American Unity. "As demonstrated in our friend of the court  brief in the Supreme Court case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Hamdi should never have been recognized as a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause."

"We are pleased that the Justice Department's terms for release of Hamdi force him to drop all claims that he ever was a U.S. citizen. Our brief provides the legal foundation for the Justice Department's position not to recognize Hamdi as a United States citizen simply because he was born in Louisiana.

The brief asked the Supreme Court to apply the Fourteenth Amendment's jurisdiction requirement in its intended form -- including an allegiance requirement -- in order to decide whether Yaser Hamdi was, as claimed, an "American citizen by birth."

The "amici" on the brief included the Center for American Unity, The Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement, the National Center for Citizenship and Immigration, and eight Congressmen Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Joe Barton (R-TX), Mac Collins (R-GA), John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN), Steve King (R-IA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Lamar S. Smith (R-TX), and Tom Tancredo (R-CO).

"The Center for American Unity will continue to challenge "drive-by citizenship" or 'birthright citizenship" at every opportunity. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that a "birthright" citizen be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States which means having an allegiance to this country.

"United States citizenship requires more than the accident of being born on U.S. soil - - an llegiance to the United States is necessary. Since June when Irish voters overwhelmingly approved an end to birthright citizenship in that country, no European Union country automatically grants citizenship to everyone born in their country," Edith Hakola said.

The Center for American Unity is an educational foundation. The Center's programs include a court monitoring project and the Internet magazine VDARE.com. The Center's President is author and journalist, Peter Brimelow.

For more information see www.cfau.org or call