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News Release

July 8, 1997

The text of the accompanying telegram was approved unanimously on June 29th at a joint meeting of the World Constituent Assembly and the World Citizens Assembly, meeting at the Kongresshaus in Innsbruck, Austria.

The telegram was sent to President Carter by Dr. Lucille Green, president of the World Citizens Assembly and vice president of the World Constitution and Parliament Association.

The telegram refers to the recent deportation order against Garry Davis that resulted from a hearing at the Immigration and Naturalization office in Washington, D.C., May 17.

The confrontation between World Citizen Davis and the U.S. Government started May 13, when Davis attempted to reenter the U.S. after a brief trip to Europe. He was identified only by a World Passport issued by the World Service Authority in Basel, Switzerland, an organization founded and headed by Davis.

Davis, a World War II bomber pilot, surrendered his American nationality in 1948, announcing that he was a Citizen of the World. He declared a World Government in 1953, and his organization began issuing passports and other identifying documents to self-identified world citizens. To date, Davis says, more than 50,000 people around the world have applied for and been issued the World Passport.

Although the U.S. does not officially recognize the World Passport as an acceptable travel document, six other sovereign nations do recognize it formally, and more than 100 others have visaed it or permitted border crossings on a case-by-case basis.

Davis has appealed the exclusion order against him. His attorney, the noted civil-rights lawyer David Carliner, believes that the case may well reach the U.S. Supreme Court before the legal course is run.

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