Speech #1050022108

Senator KENNY. Senator Hxircn. Senator DEWIns. and Senator DLu=N. a short. technical bill to correct a drafting error in last years Immigration bill that could wrongly deny U.S. citizenship to certain children born overseas to a U.S.-cltlzon parent. To explain the problem addressed by this bill. some background Is In order. Prior to 1986. a minor child. born abroad to a U.S.-citizen parent. was ellgible for US. citizonship if the childs U.S. citizenparent had physically resided In the United States for at least 10 years prior to the childs birth. The 1986 Immigration bill shortened this residency period to 5 years for children born after its effective date. but perhaps inadvertently retained the 10year requirement for children born before that date. This double standard yielded anomalous results. In families where the US..citizen parent had resided in the United States for more than 5 years but less than 10. a younger childborn In. say. 1987would be eligible for U.S. citizenship. while that childs older slblingborn In. say. 1985would not be. To eliminate this disparity. the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 amended the relevant provision or the immigration and Nationality Act to establish a uniform 8year residency requirement. without regard to the date of the childs birth. A provision in last years Immigration bill. however. effectively repealed the 1894 amendment described above. thus restoring the prior double standard. There was. of course. no policy basis for this change. and no one has claimed ownership of it. The change appears to have simply been a drafting error in a purely technical section of last years bill. This error needs to be corrected without delay. Once a child turns 18. he Is no longer eligible to become a U.S. citIzen under the Immigration and Nationality Act provision that was affected by the drafting error. Thus. children who turn 18 before this error is corrected will be permanently Ineligible to become U.S. citizens under the provision at issue. The longer this error goes uncorrected. the greater the number of children who will be harmed by It.