Speech #920233263

They were petitioning me as their elected representative to remedy what they felt to be an inequity in the United States Constitution. They referred to article II. section I. clause 5 which reads in part: No person except a natural born Citizen. or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution. shall be eligible to the Office of President.... The concern which they voiced in their letter to me was that this provision prevents a naturalized citizen. who has all the other privileges of a natural born citizen. from running for President. A check of the judicial and legislative history of this provision shows that it has been construed strictly to mean literal. ly what it says and that it does seem to preclude a naturalized citizen from holding the Office of President of the United States. I would point out to my colleagues that no similar prohibition exists with regard to the offices of Representative or Senator. Thus. naturalized citizens. being barred from the Office of President. are declared to be less than natural or native born citizens. and are denied the privilege of serving their adopted country in the highest office it holds open to native born citizens. To demonstrate the extent of this injustice. it is helpful to look at the number of naturalized citizens who live in the United States. While the 1970 census statistics are not yet final. the Immigration and Naturalization Office of the Justice Department has supplied me with some of the figures. Since 1907 there have been over 8.8 million persons who have become naturalized citizens. Of these. nearly two million were naturalized within the past decade. In the last 2 years alone. 219.000 persons have been naturalized. I feel that the students of Joyce Junior High School. in their studies of the Constitution. have uncovered a real inequity. and I hope that it can be changed. We should not allow artificial barriers to make naturalized citizenship in any way secondclass citizenship. And we should not prevent a naturalized American from holding the Office of President and serving his country if he is the choice of the majority of citizens in the United States. Consequently. I am today introducing a resolution which calls for an amendment to the Constitution and which would allow an individual who has become a naturalized citizen to be eligible for the Office of President if he has been both a citizen of and resident in the United States for 12 years. I hope that the Congress and the necessary threefourths of the States will take action on this measure. and I thank the students at Joyce Junior High School for their concern and for helping to bring this matter to the attention of the Congress.