Speech #920027048

They involve no money. The first of these bills. H.R. 1534. would change from 16 to 18 years the cutoff age for automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenship by children through the naturalization of their parents. Section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act now provides that a child born outside the United States of a citizen parent and an alien parent may derive naturalization from the alien parent only if that parent is naturalized before the child Is 16. and the child himself establishes permanent residence in this country prior to his 16th birthday. Section 321 contains similar provisions for children born outside the country of two alien parents: derivative naturalization is automatic only for children who are now under 16 when their parents are naturalized. The bill currently under consideration would. as I have said. raise the cutoff age for automatic derivative naturalization from 16 to 18. This was the law under the Nationality Act of 1940. prior to its amendment by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. and there would seem to be no logical reasons for its change. In the words of the House Judiciary Committee report: It is believed that the present law is burdensome. time oonsumnng. and without any apparent useful purpose. We have passed draft and voting laws recognizing 18 as the beginning of maturity. there is no reason why our naturalization laws should not reflect the same principle. Further. the illogicality of the law as it now stands is underlined by section 322. which provides that a child between 16 and 18 may acquire citizenship through the naturalization of a parent through judicial naturalization proceedings instigated by that parent. The net effect of H.R. 1534 would simply be to make 18. rather than 16. the oldest age at which such derivative naturalization would be automatic. The second bill under consideration. H.R. 1535. would exempt any alien who is over 50 years of age and has been living here for a minimum of 20 years at the time of his filing for naturalization from the English literacy requirement as a prerequisite for naturalization. I sponsored H.R. 5929. which Is identical to H.R. 1535. and this legislation represents no change in current policy. but merely the extension of a deadline which has become obsolete with the passage of time. Section 312 of the Immigration and Nationality Act contains an identical waiver for any person who was over 50 and had lived here for 20 years or more as of December 24. 1952. However. 18 years have passed since then and. as a representative of the Department of Justices Immigration and Nationality Service testified before the House Judiciary Committee: Those who could claim the exemptions today would have to be at least 68 years of age and have lived in this country for as much as 38 years. Those who reached age 50 or who completed the 20 years of residence after 1952 remain ineligible for the exemptions. even though they may now be over age 60 and have lived -here for as much as 30 years. We know of no reason why the policy expressed in the 1952 legislation should not apply to the latter group.