Guantanamo Bay prisoners

[yesthattom]

At what point do the Guantanamo Bay prisoners naturalize and become US citizens? At that point, they’d be protected and would get lawyers, etc. Right?

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

except they're not on american soil, just in an american possession. That's part of why it's located where it is. They would also need to voluntarily agree to become American citizens (and how many of them do you think will do that?), and meet all the requirements (and I'll bet 'being in a US-run jail' is exclusionary; a criminal record excludes you if you've been convicted of a crime that's a crime in the US, though convictions for things that the US doesn't consider a crime are acceptable (Nelson Mandela ok, Peewee who robbed a liquor store, not ok)).

[geminigirl]

They won't. Unless they qualify for legal entry into the US, somehow...but as far as I know, (and IANAL) they don't qualify.

[ayse.livejournal.com]

And even if they did qualify for legal entry (which they don't) and were on US soil (which they aren't), and they were somehow allowed to apply (which of course they would not be) and meet the qualifications (which they couldn't, because partticipating in armed combat against the US disqualifies you) and go through the rigamarole (with nobody to help them and everybody around them opposing them, and take the test (which is not administered where they are and for which they have no help in studying) before they could be sworn in (and who would swear them in?).

There is no automatic becoming of a US citizen, except by birth.

[geminigirl]

"There is no automatic becoming of a US citizen, except by birth."</>

This is so true. And perhaps one day, my dear husband will get his act together and get his green card paperwork filed, you know, before his visa runs out.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

naw, they'd still be "enemy combatants" and thus don't need that pesky habeas corpus.

[xthread.livejournal.com]

For what its worth, btw, any sort of logic that allows people to become US citizens simply because we've held onto them for a long time probably makes it easier for US citizens to have their citizenship revoked, and that way lies the fall of the Republic (or, well, at the very least it was one of the contributing factors for Rome, and in general we should be allergic to things that caused the Roman Republic to fall)