local chapter of your favorite political party abroad

October 15, 2012 1:36 PM

What rights (if any) do legal immigrants and/or lawful residents and citizens in the USA have to create political organizations in support of foreign political parties? Could you please point me to relevant legislature or communicate your own experience.
posted by carmina to Law & Government (6 answers total)

Do you mean foreign as in to the immigrant or foreign as in to the United States?
posted by Blasdelb at 2:10 PM on October 15, 2012

All the major Pakistani political parties have US chapters. Is that what you mean?

Examples
Pakistan People's Party
Pakistan Muslim League-N
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf

I have no idea what the legal status of these chapters is. The Tehreek-e-Insaaf website seems to indicate that it is a limited liability company.
posted by bardophile at 2:23 PM on October 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you bardophile! Blasdelb foreign as to the US. The immigrants want to support the political parties from their country of origin and the question is whether that is legal or we have to phrase it as "friends of SO&SO political party" and what other legal issues as such pertain.
posted by carmina at 2:34 PM on October 15, 2012

Forgive me if this is a naïve question, but is there a reason to think this wouldn't be protected political speech just like supporting a domestic political party? What would these organizations do— raise awareness, raise money, ...?
posted by hattifattener at 10:41 PM on October 15, 2012

Just about the only real restrictions are on working to overthrow foreign governments (which has had significant exceptions) or if the political party involved happens to be on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) . Even then those rules don't apply to the politically connected.
posted by Blasdelb at 11:43 PM on October 15, 2012

Note that even if it's legal in the US, it might not be legal in the foreign country! The other country may specifically frown on having political party funding coming from the US.
posted by vasi at 7:44 AM on October 16, 2012