Speech #880136359

Mr. President. I introduce. for appropriate reference. a bill to amend section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. which defines who shall be citizens of the United States at birth. Clause 7 of this section states that. if a person Is born outside of the United States of parents. one of whom is an alien and the other a citizen of the United States. the citizen parent. prior to the birth of the person. must have lived in the United States for at least 10 years. 5 of which were after attaining the age of 14. It came to my attention some time ago that this part of our Immigration and Nationality Act could work an undue hardship on certain naturalized American citizens who were serving in the Armed Forces abroad. In one particular case. a naturalized American citizen who was a sergeant in the Air Force stationed overseas with his noncitizen wife became the parent of a baby boy. He soon learned that his son was not an American citizen by birth and that his son could become only a naturalized citizen. This was due to the fact that the boy had been born overseas and that his father had not. prior to going overseas. lived in the United States 10 years. If the boy had been born in the United States. regardless of the fact that one of his parents was an alien and the other was a citizen who had not lived in the United States 10 years prior to his birth. he would have been a citizen of the United States at birth.