The U.S. Wants to Seize Your PassportHeres What You Can Do About ItBy Nick Giambruno For his efforts, the Soviet government stripped him of his citizenship in 1974. It did the same and worse to many other people it considered internal enemies. The Nazi government revoked German citizenship from people it deemed undesirable, like the Jews. After Castro came to power in Cuba, his government made Cuban citizens apply for exit visas before leaving the island. It did not grant them easily. In recent years, many of the Persian Gulf monarchies not exactly bastions of individual liberty have passed laws making it easier to revoke the citizenship of anyone working against the interests of the state or of anyone who has who failed the duty of loyalty. In recent years, these Arab monarchies have used these laws to strip hundreds of people of their citizenship. Most of these people were advocates of political reform. Some even lost their citizenship because of mere social media postings. All of these Arab monarchies are close allies of the U.S. government. Keep that in mind next time you hear a pundit or politician advocating U.S. military intervention ostensibly for the sake of protecting human rights or promoting democracy. But thats a story for another day. The point here is, arbitrarily revoking citizenship and forcing people to stay where they are have always been hallmarks of an authoritarian regime. When a government starts these outrageous practices, its usually a harbinger of things to come. Unfortunately, these practices are becoming more common in so-called liberal democracies for increasingly trivial offenses. Here are a few recent examples of this disturbing trend: Our government cannot be involved in secret executions. If people are accused of wrongdoing they should be brought before a court and tried. That is what it means to live in a democracy that adheres to the rule of law. Recently, President Obama signed H.R. 22 into law. Its a seemingly routine federal highway funding law. The mainstream media hasnt covered it much, but it should. Thats because this law is part of a disturbing global trend: Governments are granting themselves more and more power to revoke passports and strip people of their citizenship. Buried in its 400 pages which I doubt many in Congress bothered to read is a provision giving the government the power to revoke the passport of American citizens with seriously delinquent tax debt, which the government defines as $50,000 or more. If the government accuses you, there is no way for you to challenge it in court before you lose your right to travel. A bureaucrat can simply initiate an administrative procedure to revoke your passport. Its worth mentioning that tax debt includes taxes owed and penalties and interest. That makes it relatively easy for someone to cross the $50,000 threshold. Not long ago, there was a scandal over the IRS targeting Tea Party organizations. It wasnt the first time the government has used the IRS as a political weapon, and I doubt it will be the last. I think its likely that the U.S. government will use the IRS to target Americans with unpopular beliefs by restricting their right to travel in the near future. This kind of behavior is hardly unique to the U.S. government. Looking at the historical and current examples I mentioned earlier, you can see its common for governments to prohibit citizens with politically unpopular views from traveling. I dont see anything likely to stop this trend. I only expect it to accelerate. Its worth mentioning that the government can restrict your right to travel for reasons other than tax debt. In the U.S., the government can also cancel your passport if itaccusesyou of a felony. It doesnt even need to convict you. Many people think felonies only consist of major crimes like robbery and murder. But that isnt true. An ever-expanding mountain of laws and regulations has criminalized even the most mundane activities. Its not as hard to commit a felony as you might think. Many victimless crimes are felonies. A study by civil liberty lawyer Harvey Silverglate found that the average American inadvertently commits three felonies a day. The bottom line is: If the U.S. government really wants to cancel your U.S. passport, it can find some technicality for doing itfor anyone. Youll notice that many of these new citizenship-stripping laws use vague language like public good, loyalty, allegiance, extremist, and national interest. But the most ill-defined word of them all is terrorist. It has no fixed definition. Terrorist has always been a meaningless pejorative. In the past, it meant something like a non-state actor who indiscriminately attacks innocent civilians for political ends as if wearing a government-issued costume changes the underlying morality of the act. Now, governments are applying the label to an ever-widening group of people. Take Bernard von NotHaus, for example. The U.S. government labeled him a domestic terrorist for creating a private gold/silver-backed currency. Bureaucrats in D.C. have described conservative activists and libertarians in similar terms. Civil liberties advocates fear its possible for governments to construe even commonplace internet activity such as clicking Like on the wrong Facebook posting as terrorist activity. I think politicians deliberately use imprecise language in these new citizenship-stripping laws. It gives governments almost total discretion. It lets them make up rules as they go alongand get away with it. Its a safe bet that politicians will use the flexible wording in these laws to stretch the net wider and wider. More and more people are will become vulnerable to governments that want to revoke their passport and citizenship. All the government has to do is flip a bureaucratic switch and, poof, it can take your right to travel in an instant, without due process. The best way to protect yourself from this threatening trend is to obtain a second passport. A second passport gives you enormous political diversification benefits. Most important, it dilutes the governments power to effectively place you under house arrest by taking away your passport. Obtaining a second passport is a fundamental step toward freeing yourself from absolute dependence on any one country. Once you have that freedom, its much harder for any government to control your destiny. That said, obtaining a second passport is often complicated. Its essential to have a trusted resource with reliable, easy-to-follow information. Thats whereCasey Researchcomes in. We can show you how to get started. You can get our comprehensive guide on how to get the best second passports by clicking here. Nick is Doug Caseys globetrotting companion and is the Senior Editor of Casey Researchs International Man. He writes about economics, offshore banking, second passports, value investing in crisis markets, geopolitics, and surviving a financial collapse, among other topics. He is a CFA charterholder. In short, Nicks work helps people make the most of their personal freedom and financial opportunity around the world. To get his free video crash course, click here. The controllers need people mindlessly believing the fairy tale about what the country is. That way the people are controlled and will voluntarily die to keep the power structure in place. The people are convinced that a government, which claims a right to steal (tax) every cent you make at whatever rate they choose, is this beneficient entity that keeps them free. The people are so convinced of this fantasy that they actually fight and die to maintain it. And those same people have not spent even 15 minutes actually investigating and questioning the facts surrounding the fundamental concept for which they are ready to die. And if you suggest otherwise, they attack you as a kook or an America hater. 