Speech #900175029

My first answer is "absolutely." however. when one gets to know some of the people who are in that category. there are many fine persons of foreign birth who come to the United States. and they usually live in an area where people from their own land have a community while their children learn English. some of them find it very difficult. In fact. the Immigration Service in some communities has started schools to prepare some of these people to learn the English language. There is absolutely no naturalization requirement. as far as the qualifications are concerned. that is waived. except that they can take the naturalization examinations in their native language and not in the English language. But they have to qualify in every respect. mentally. physically and in every other respect. under the law. except that they answer the question in their native language. The purpose of H.R. 555 as amended is to bring three sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act to a modern perspective. The first section of the bill amends section 312 to waive the naturalization requirement of an understanding of the English language for any person who is over 50 years of age and has been living in the United States for 20 years or more on the date of filing his petition. Under existing law. this requirement is waived for persons who were over 50 years old on December 24. 1952. and who have lived in the United States for periods totaling at least 20 years. The committee finds that this waiver should in all equity be extended to all persons over 50 years of age and in the United States for 20 years. rather than limited just to those qualifying in 1952. This waiver does not apply to any other requirement for naturalization. but permits the petitioning alien to demonstrate in his own native tongue his knowledge and understanding of the history. and of the principles and form of government. of the United States. The second section of the bill amends section 301(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that any person who acquired U.S. citizenship at birth abroad under section 301(a) (7) of the act shall not lose such citizenship if he enters the United States to reside permanently prior to attaining age 18 and his alien parent acquires U.S. citizenship. prior to the childs 18th birthday. This section is designed to remove a present inequity in the law by putting the child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent and acquiring U.S. citizenship at birth on an equal footing with the child born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent who does not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth. but subsequently derives it. Under section 301(a) (7) a child born abroad to an aliencitizen parent combination acquires U.S. citizenship at birth if his U.S. citizen parent resided in the United States for 10 years before the birth of the child. at least 5 of which were after attaining the age of 14 years. The present law requires that in order to retain this citizenship. the child must return to the United States and reside here for 5 years between the ages of 14 and 28. Section 320 of the present law provides that the child born abroad to the aliencitizen parent combination who does not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth because his citizen parent cannot qualify. can derive U.S. citizenship if the alien parent naturalizes and the child begins to reside in the United States before the child is 16 years of age. The child thus deriving U.S. citizenship does not have any further retention requirements. and is accordingly. at an advantage over the child who acquired U.S. citizenship at birth. but must then return to the United States for 5 years to retain it. The amendment in this section thus gives the child acquiring U.S. citizenship at birth the option to retain his citizenship either through returning to the United States for 5 years. as presently provided in the law. or through the naturalization of his alien parent and beginning residence before the age of 18 as provided in the amendment. Sections 3 and 4 of the bill amend sections 320 and 321 to change the critical age for automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenship through the naturalization of an alien parent or parents from 16 to 18 years. Under present law. children between the ages of 16 and 18 can acquire U.S. citizenship only through judicial naturalization proceedings commenced by the parent or parents on behalf of the children. Prior to the age of 16. the child can acquire citizenship through the naturalization of the alien parent. Over 18 years. the child can petition for himself. Accordingly. this section would remove a burdensome and timeconsuming process for a child between the ages of 16 and 18 and by so doing. restores the law as it existed prior to the effective date of the Immigration and Nationality Act in December 1952.