Passport—Right or Privilege?
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000107 |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Author | Joseph A. Fanelli |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
36
Passport—Right
or
Privilege?
By
JOSEPH
A.
FANELLI
PASSPORT-right
or
privilege?
±
These
are
large
words.
Like
the
federal
government’s
security
standard
one can
get
out
of
them
about
what
one
puts
into
them.
So
I
attempt
to
define
them,
at
least
for
the
purposes
of
this
discussion.
Let
us
first
delimit
the
word
&dquo;pass-
port.&dquo;
Back
in
1940,
a
story
was
cur-
rent
about
the
old
man,
a
Jewish
refu-
gee
from
Hitler’s
Germany,
who
went
to
the
counter
of
Cook’s
travel
agency
in
Lisbon
to
buy
transportation.
&dquo;Where
do
you
want
to
go?&dquo;
asked
the
polite
clerk
behind
the
counter.
&dquo;I
do
not
know,&dquo;
said
the
old
man.
&dquo;This
is
not
an
easy
question.
I
was
lucky
to
escape
from
Germany.
Here
you
have
Salazar.
In
Italy
and
Spain,
there
are
Mussolini
and
Franco.
In
Latin
America,
Trujillo,
Batista,
and
Vargas
are
in
power.
And
I
hear
that,
in
the
United
States,
anti-Semitism
is
on
the
rise.&dquo;
&dquo;Here,&dquo;
said
the
clerk,
&dquo;is
a
map
of
the
world.
Go
over
to
that
desk
and
study
it.
When
you
have
decided
where
you
want
to
go,
let
me
know
and
I’ll
sell
you
a
ticket.&dquo;
The
old
man
studied the
map
of
the
world
with
care
for
some
hours.
At
closing
time,
he
returned
the
map
to
the
clerk.
&dquo;Please,
sir,&dquo;
said
the
old
fel-
low,
&dquo;do
you
have
anything
else?&dquo;
The
story
shows
the
dreams
of
which
humanity
is
capable
even
at
the
nadir.
Had
the
old
man
wanted
to
visit
and
inspect
some
country
as
a
possible
fu-
ture
residence,
he
would
have
needed
a
passport
to
identify
himself
as
a
citizen
of
Germany,
with
a
right
to
return
and
live
in
Germany.
That
he
undoubtedly
did
not
get
from
Hitler.
One
function
of
a
passport
is
to
evi-
dence
the
right
of
the
holder,
if
abroad,
to
return and
live
in
the
country
that
issued
it.
At
this
hour,
I
am
happy
to
report,
a
citizen
of
the
United
States
can
return
to
the
United
States
from
abroad
at
any
time
and
in
all
circum-
stances,
and
he
can
get
a
passport
for
that
purpose.
Hence,
it
may
be
said
that
he has
a
right
to
that
one
particu-
lar
use
of
a
passport.
But
his
passport
rights,
in
that
absolute
sense,
end
there.
RESTRICTIONS
Under
the
law
today,
a
citizen
of
the
United
States
has
no
right
in
all
cir-
cumstances
to
get
a
passport
for
the
purpose
of
leaving
the
United
States
and
visiting
abroad.
It
is
a
federal
criminal
offense
for
a
citizen
to
depart
from
the
United
States
except
in
ac-
cordance with
the
passport
regulations.
Those
regulations
require
a
passport
for
all
points
outside
the
Western
Hemi-
sphere-Europe,
the
Middle
East,
the
Far
East,
and
so
forth.
Since
the
fed-
eral
government
regards
passport
issu-
ance
as
a
privilege
to
be
extended
or
withheld
from
a
citizen,
there
are
a
number
of
circumstances
in
which
our
Department
of
State
will
deny
a
pass-
port.
The
result
of
a
denial
is
to
place
the
citizen
in
a
sort
of
hemisphere
jail.
A
citizen
without
a
passport
may
travel
to
Canada,
Mexico,
and
most
Western
Hemisphere
countries.
But
the
rest
of
the
world
is
closed
to
him.
The
State
Department
will
deny
a
passport
to
a
citizen
under
federal
in-
dictment
or
otherwise
sought
by
out-
standing
compulsory
federal
legal
proc-
ess.
I
cannot
quarrel
with
that.
Nor
would
I
quarrel
with
a
denial
of
a
pass-
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