Speech #900044162

Conversely. the saddest experience I witness in the Congress is that cry for help from a person lost in a maze of Federal statutes and no relief can be uncovered. There is nothing one can do with a defective statute except to change it. Recently I received an anxious plea from a father and mother and their four children. ages 8. 10. 18. and 19a plea asking me to find something in the law which would permit the fifth child. a 17yearold girl. to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen along with the other six members of the -family. Unfortunately. there is no such provision in the law. The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that foreignborn children derive U.S. citizenship upon the naturalization of their alien parents. if the children are still under the age of 16 years. This provision Is found in section 321. Thus. the youngest children will become citizens the same day their parents are naturalized. Furthermore. the law provides that a person who is at least 18 years old is eligible to file his or her own petition for naturalization. Thus. the two elder children can become naturalized citizens on their own petition. The 17yearold girl. through absolutely no fault of her own will be deprived of becoming a U.S. citizen on the same day as the other members of her family. simply because of an oversight in existing law. She is too old to derive citizenship through her parents naturalization and not old enough to file her own petition for naturalization. It is true that the young girls parents. after becoming citizens. can file a petition for her naturalization. but the present law deprives a child of the opportunity of becoming a U.S. citizen at the same time as her parents. brothers. and sisters. I introduce legislation today to correct this void in our naturalization statutes by making it possible for a child to derive t citizenship through the naturalization of a parent or parents up until their 18th birthday. I send my warm congratulations and sympathetic apologies to this family that has prompted this legislation and who has looked longingly for American citizenship. I trust this legislation can be expeditiously considered by the committee and by the House.