Speech #1020099008

And for each of them. there are many more who would sacrifice everything they have for the privilege to do the same thing. For those of us fortunate enough to have been born of American parents or an American parent. citizenship is a birthright whether we were born here or abroad. The one glaring exception applies to children born abroad prior to 1934 to American mothers and noncitizen fathers. Under an 1855 immigration law that Is still on the books. these children. who are now seniors. have been denied their birthright. For them. American citizenship may come only through naturalization. if at all. If the citizenship of their parents had been reversed. however. they would have been born American. The Congress in 1934 realized the discriminatory nature of the 1855 statute and proceeded to change it. Fourteen years after women were given the right to vote. the immigration laws were amended to permit American mothers to pass citizenship to their foreign born children on an equal footing with American fathers. But the job was left only half done. The changes in the law applied only prospectively. I learned about this gap in our immigration laws quite by accident. Charles DeWitt. a Washington resident. recently learned that his American citizenship had been decreed by mistake some 50 years ago. Despite carrying an American passport. despite serving as a loyal member of the Marine Corps. despite living in America since 1936. despite voting in numerous elections. and despite being a good American in every sense of the word. he is not an American citizen and he never was.