The Northern Virginia doctor knows at least that much about his situation. He knows he is no longer considered a citizen of the United States — the place where he was born, went to school and has practiced medicine for more than 30 years — and that he also belongs to no other place.
A letter from a State Department official informed him that he should not have been granted citizenship at the time of his birth because his father was a diplomat with the Embassy of Iran. The letter directed Sobhani to a website where he could apply for lawful permanent residence.
So technically he was voting in US elections while not being US citizen, likely multiple times, so, technically he should go to jail. But it would be insane if it happens, and it is insane what they doing to him now.
No, he was a US citizen at the time. They’ve revoked his citizenship now because they said it shouldn’t have been granted, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t ever a citizen. It means he was before, but is not now.
I wonder how that works for his social security number and all of his social security and general retirement funds he’s been paying into.
The article addresses this same issue
The factual elements of crimes usually have an associated mental state, called mens rea (Latin for ‘guilty mind’) in law. For example, intentionally taking something that isn’t yours is theft, but accidentally taking something that isn’t yours (perhaps because the thing looks just like your thing) is not theft. Unintentional acts can still be crimes; recklessly killing someone is manslaughter in most jurisdictions.
The mens rea given in the Federal voter fraud statute is “knowingly and willfully”, which is obviously not the case here.
He can be deported for voting (pretending to be a US citizen).
No, he wasn’t “pretending” to be a citizen, he was a citizen. They’ve just now decided his citizenship was granted in error, and so he now is no longer a citizen.