Alien Donors: The Participation of Non-Citizens in the U.S. Campaign Finance System
![handle is hein.journals/yalpr15 and id is 509 raw text is: Alien Donors: The Participation of Non-Citizens in
the U.S. Campaign Finance System
Bruce D. Brownt
In the closing weeks of the 1996 presidential race, press reports uncovered
that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had received large contribu-
tions from a number of individuals in the United States who were not American
citizens. The articles publicized a little-scrutinized but longstanding set of legal
standards governing the participation of aliens in the campaign finance system.
Among those rules is a prohibition on donations from foreign sources. Because
some of the immigrants who gave to the Democrats retained connections to
overseas business interests, their contributions looked suspicious-and a scandal
was born. That controversy now threatens to push Congress in the direction of
taking a constitutionally suspect policy and making it worse.
Campaign finance controls have been described as providing a formal,
public opportunity for the people of a state through their lawmaking organs to
decide whether foreign participation in their elections should be permitted or
prohibited.' More than thirty years ago, Congress decided, for the first time,
to take steps to limit this manifestation of overseas influence in the U.S.
political scene. Federal law currently prohibits foreign nationals (defined to
include foreign governments and corporations, as well as temporary visitors
from abroad) from making contributions in connection with any campaign for
elective office.' Rulemaking by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in
1989 extended these statutory restrictions-which reach federal, state, and local
elections but not ballot initiatives-to all expenditures as well.'
However, immigrants admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence are
exempt from these restraints and are thus free to fund U.S. political campaigns.
The ability of these legal permanent residents (LPRs) to exercise candidate and
party preferences provides them a significant entrde into the American political
t A.B. 1988 Stanford University; M.A. 1992 Harvard University; J.D. 1995 Yale Law School. For
conversations along the way, the author would like to thank Pieter Boelhouwer, David Broder, David
Cole, Douglas Letter, Jennifer Mnookin, Jamin Raskin, Amy Rifkind, Peter Schuck, Smart Taylor, Jr.,
and Benjamin Wittes.
1. Lori Fisler Damrosch, Politics Across Borders: Nonintervention and Nonforcible Influence over
Domestic Affairs, 83 AM. J. INT'L L. 1, 21 (1989).
2. See 2 U.S.C. § 441e (1994).
3. See Restrictions on Foreign Nationals Extended, reprinted in 4 Fed. Election Camp. Fin. Guide
(CCH) 9276 (Nov. 17, 1989) [hereinafter Restrictions Extended].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/yalpr15&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Alien Donors: The Participation of Non-Citizens in the U.S. Campaign Finance System
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most