CIA MAY GET NEW POWERS TO GRANT CITIZENSHIP TO SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302220003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/02 : CIA-RDP
5
UNITT:AD PRESS INTERNATIONAL
18 October 1985
CIA MAY GET NEW POWERS TO GRANT CITIZENSHIP TO SPIES
BY LANCE GAY
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
90-00965R000302220003-3
@WASHINGTON _ Legislation pending in Congress would allow
CIA Director William Casey to grant American citizenship to as many as 10
foreign spies each year in secret ceremonies.<
The Senate attached the measure to the House-passed 1986
intelligence authorization bill which is now in a House-Senate conference
committee.<
Neither Senate Intelligence Committee aides nor CIA officials would
comment on why the changes in current immigration laws are needed or what
types of foreign agent would be secretly given U.S. citizenship.<
?It's a relatively sensitive issue," said Intelligence Committee
spokesman David Holliday.<
?Basically, there are a certain class of people with whom the
United States has dealings that we feel deserve to have citizenship without
having to go through the current regulations," he said. s These are a
specialized class of folks.' <
The proposed law would allow the CIA director to grant citizenship
to 10 foreign agents each year who have made an ?extraordinary
contribution to the national security of the United States or to the
conduct of United States intelligence activities."<
Under the measure the CIA, in consultation with the attorney
general and commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
would be able to waive the waiting period and bypass normal INS
requirements that immigrants applying for citizenship be residents of the
federal court district where they are sworn in.<
The proposal allows naturalization papers for the new secret
citizens to be filed in any federal court. They will not be made
public," said Holliday.<
Casey would be required to inform congressional intelligence and
judiciary committees each time a new citizen is secretly sworn in.<
Holliday declined to say whether changes in the INS law would allow
the CIA to secretly grant citizenship to agents still working in foreign
countries.<
The descriptions are very well spelled out in the law, let's let
it go at that," he said.<
A CIA spokeswoman said the provisions would bring only minor
changes to current procedures.<
In the past, foreign agents and defectors have been given new
identities and allowed to become American citizens if they chose through
regular INS proceedures that protected their real identities.<
(Lance Gay covers Congress for Scripps Howard News Service.)<
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000302220003-3