Rojas has been denied U.S. citizenship because she had the "misfortune" of having a U.S. citizen grandmother instead of a U.S. citizen grandfather. In 1994. Senator Paul Simon passed the Immigration and Nationality and Technical Corrections Act. which allowed individuals born overseas before 1934 to U.S. citizen mothers. and their descendants. to claim U.S. citizenship. As a result of that 1994 law. the mother of Janina Rojas applied for U.S. citizenship. which she received in January When Janina Rojas attempted to derive citizenship as a descendant of a direct beneficiary of the 1994 law. however. her application was denied. Despite the 1994 law. the Immigration and Naturalization Service requires that the mother of Janina Rojas meet transmission requirements: the mother must have been physically present in the U.S. for 10 years prior to Janinas birth. 5 of which were after the age of 16 years. in order for Janina to derive citizenship. Since her mother was prohibited from becoming a U.S. citizen until 1996. however. it is unreasonable to require that she was in the U.S. for 10 years. Clearly. while 60 years of discriminatory law was corrected in 1994. the citizenship qualifications of the line of descendants of those U.S. citizen females remain adversely impacted.
Keywords matched
Naturalization Immigration