To Be Expelled From a State Is to Be Expelled From Humanity
Hannah Arendt:
The basic issue involved is the following: As long as mankind is nationally and territorially organized in states, a stateless person is not simply expelled from one country, native or adopted, but from all countries — none being obliged to receive and naturalize him — which means he is actually expelled from humanity. Deprivation of citizenship consequently should be counted among the crimes against humanity, and some of the worst recognized crimes in this category have, in fact, and not incidentally, been preceded by mass expatriations. …
It seems absurd, but the fact is that, under the political circumstances of this century, a Constitutional Amendment may be needed to assure American citizens that they cannot be deprived of their citizenship, no matter what they do.
A letter to Robert Hutchins of the Fund for the Republic, 27 January 1957; quoted in Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World, p. 275