Alien Donors: The Participation of Non-Citizens in the U.S. Campaign Finance System

Abstract

In the closing weeks of the 1996 presidential race, press reports uncovered that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had received large contributions 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.