Safe Havens

(A)  Investigating United States Citizenship.  A person who is a U.S. citizen or national may not be deported or subjected to other adverse immigration consequences, unless the citizenship is first revoked or lost.  See § 4.5, supra.  Deportation of someone who is currently a United States citizen is unconstitutional, no matter what.[19]

It is critical to ask each client whether s/he is a U.S. citizen or U.S. national.  If you have a client with a name like Michael Jackson who speaks perfect colloquial American English and appears fully Caucasian, he may still turn out to be a citizen of Canada who has lived here since he was two years old and who is a Lawful Permanent Resident.  There is absolutely no way to learn of the great immigration jeopardy he is in without asking him his immigration status.

[19] Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (1957) (deportation of a United States citizen violates the Eighth Amendment); Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276 (1922); Fierro v. INS, 66 F.Supp.2d 229, 231 (D. Mass. 1999) (“The INS has no discretion to execute removal orders against United States citizens.”).