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Citizenship of the United States

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 70.90.87.73 (talk) at 18:07, 20 March 2012 (→‎History of citizenship in the United States: Too much like an essay, sources aren't great. I'll put the previous text with refs on the talk page but this section needs a lot of work.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

United States citizenship confers the right to acquire a U.S. passport.[1]
Main article: Citizenship

Citizenship in the United States is a legal marker denoting political membership in the United States that entails specific rights, privileges, and duties. Citizenship is understood as a "right to have rights" since it serves as a foundation for a bundle of subsequent rights, such as the right to live and work in the United States and to receive federal assistance.[2]

There are two primary sources of citizenship: birthright citizenship, in which a person is presumed to be a citizen provided that he or she is born within the territorial limits of the United States,[3] and naturalization, a process in which an immigrant applies for citizenship and is accepted. These two pathways to citizenship are specified in the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment which reads:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

— from the Fourteenth Amendment.

National citizenship signifies membership in the country as a whole; state citizenship, in contrast, signifies a relation between a person and a particular state and has limited application, generally, with some exceptions being that state citizenship may affect (1) tax decisions and (2) eligibility for some state-provided benefits such as higher education and (3) eligibility for state political posts such as U.S. Senator.

In Article One of the Constitution, the power to establish a "uniform rule of naturalization" is granted explicitly to Congress. Most persons who undergo naturalization do so to get permission to live and work in the nation legally.

American law permits multiple citizenship, so a citizen of another country may retain their native citizenship after becoming a citizen of the United States. The reverse is not necessarily true, however; one cannot always maintain U.S. citizenship after attaining citizenship of another country.[4] Citizenship can be renounced by citizens,[5] and it can also be restored.[6]

Relation of citizenship

Citizenship is the legal status of membership in the United States. Citizens have the right to live and work without fear of deportation. The activities typically associated with citizenship typically include duties and privileges.

Duties

Picture of a jury summons
U.S. citizens may be summoned to serve on a jury.
  • Jury duty is only imposed upon citizens. Jury duty may be considered the "sole differential obligation" between non-citizens and citizens; the federal and state courts "uniformly exclude non-citizens from jury pools today, and with the exception of a few states in the past, this has always been the case.[7]
picture of a 1040 Federal tax form with blue and white shading
Citizens are required to file US taxes even if they do not live in the US.
  • Taxes In the United States today, everyone except those whose income is derived from tax exempt revenue (Subchapter N, Section 861 of the US Tax Code) is required to pay taxes, and this has been the case for many years. The U.S. requires that aliens who are present in the United States, including non-immigrants and illegal immigrants, for more than 180 days must file tax returns.[8] American citizens are subject to taxes wherever they go in the world.[9]

Rights

Picture of four soldiers outdoors in front of a fence; one soldier points to the left
The U.S. military has been an all-volunteer force since the end of the Vietnam War but male U.S. citizens and non-citizens are still required to register for the military draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday.
  • Freedom to reside and work. United States citizens have the right to reside and work in the United States. Certain non-citizens, such as permanent residents, have similar rights.
  • Freedom to enter and leave the United States. United States citizens have the right to enter and leave the United States freely. Certain non-citizens, such as permanent residents, have similar rights.
  • Voting for federal office is restricted to citizens in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. States are not required to extend the franchise to all citizens: for example, several states bar citizen felons from voting, even after they have completed any custodial sentence. The United States Constitution bars states from restricting citizens from voting on grounds of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, failure to pay any tax, or age (for citizens who are at least eighteen years old). Historically, many states and local jurisdictions have allowed non-citizens to vote; however, today this is limited to local elections in very few places.
  • Freedom to stand for public office. The United States Constitution requires that all members of the United States House of Representatives have been citizens for seven years, and that all senators have been citizens for nine years, before taking office. Most states have similar requirements: for example California requires that legislators have been citizens for three years, and the Governor have been a citizen for five years, upon taking office. The U.S. Constitution requires that one be "a natural born Citizen" and a U.S. resident for fourteen years in order to be President of the United States.
The Constitution also stipulates that otherwise eligible citizens must be at least 35 years old to be eligible to be president, at least 25 years old to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and at least 30 years old to be a U.S. Senator.

Substantial benefits

  • Consular protection outside the United States. While traveling abroad, if a person is arrested or detained by foreign authorities, the person can request to speak to somebody from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Consular officials can provide resources for Americans incarcerated abroad, such as a list of local attorneys who speak English. The U.S. government may even intervene on the person's behalf.[10]
Picture of happy smiling people wearing red coats; in the front is President Reagan with arm around a short woman.
Citizens can compete as athletes for the United States Olympics team; President Reagan with Olympian Mary Lou Retton in 1987.
  • Increased ability to sponsor relatives living abroad.[10] Several types of immigrant visas require that the person requesting the visa be directly related to a U.S. citizen. Having U.S. citizenship facilitates the granting of IR and F visas to family members.
  • Other benefits. The USCIS sometimes honors the achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens. The 'Outstanding American by Choice Award' was created by the USCIS to recognize the outstanding achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens, and past recipients include author Elie Wiesel who won the Nobel Peace Prize; Indra K. Nooyi who is CEO of PepsiCo; John Shalikashvili who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and others.[12] Further, citizenship status can affect which country an athlete can compete as a member of in competitions such as the Olympics.[13]

Civic participation

Civic participation is not required in the United States. There is no requirement to attend town meetings, belong to a political party, or vote in elections. However, a benefit of naturalization is the ability to "participate fully in the civic life of the country."[10] There is disagreement about whether popular lack of involvement in politics is helpful or harmful. Vanderbilt professor Dana D. Nelson suggests that most Americans merely vote for president every four years, and that's all they do, and she sees this pattern as undemocratic. In her book Bad for Democracy, Nelson argues that declining citizen participation in politics is unhealthy for long term prospects for democracy. However, writers such as Robert D. Kaplan in The Atlantic see benefits to non-involvement; he wrote "the very indifference of most people allows for a calm and healthy political climate."[14] Kaplan elaborated: "Apathy, after all, often means that the political situation is healthy enough to be ignored. The last thing America needs is more voters–particularly badly educated and alienated ones–with a passion for politics."[14] He argued that civic participation, in itself, is not always a sufficient condition to bring good outcomes, and pointed to authoritarian societies such as Singapore which prospered because it had "relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency."[15]

Dual citizenship

Picture of two passport documents.
Dual citizenship means persons can travel with two passports; the United States permits dual citizenship.

A person who is considered a citizen by more than one nation has dual citizenship. It is possible for a United States citizen to have dual citizenship; this can be achieved by birth in the United States to a parent who is a citizen of a foreign country. Anyone who becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen is required to renounce any prior citizenship during the naturalization ceremony;[16] however, this renunciation may not necessarily be considered effective by the country of prior citizenship. United States citizens are required by federal law to identify themselves with a U.S. passport, not with any foreign passport, when entering the US. The Supreme Court case of Afroyim v. Rusk declared that a U.S. citizen did not lose his citizenship by voting in an election in a foreign country, or by acquiring foreign citizenship, if such acts did not require him to explicitly renounce his U.S. citizenship. Americans who have dual citizenship do not lose their United States citizenship unless they renounce it officially.[17]

History of citizenship in the United States

Citizenship began in colonial times as an active relation between people working cooperatively to solve municipal problems and participating actively in democratic decision-making, such as in New England town hall meetings. People met regularly to discuss local affairs and make decisions. These town meetings were described as the "earliest form of American democracy"[18] which was vital since citizen participation in public affairs helped keep democracy "sturdy", according to Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835.[19] A variety of forces changed this relation during the nation's history. Citizenship became less defined by participation in politics and more defined as a legal relation with accompanying rights and privileges. While the realm of civic participation in the public sphere has shrunk,[20][21][22] the citizenship franchise has been expanded[23] to include not just propertied white adult men but African-American men[24] and adult women.[25]

Birthright citizenship

Main article: Birthright citizenship in the United States of America

U.S. citizenship is usually acquired by birth when a child is born in the territory of the United States. In addition to the U.S. States, this includes the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[26][27][28] This is provided under the 14th Amendment. Citizenship, however, was not specified in the original Constitution. It was not until 1868 that the Fourteenth Amendment defined citizens as persons who were either born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction. All babies born in the United States–except those born to enemy aliens in wartime or the children of foreign diplomats–enjoy American citizenship under the Supreme Court's long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.[29] It says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."[29] Still, the amendment did not specify exactly what the relation of "citizenship" meant.

Some, but not all, children born outside the United States with at least one U.S. citizen parent have birthright citizenship by parentage.

While persons born in the United States are considered to be citizens and can have passports, children under age eighteen are legally considered to be minors and cannot vote or hold office. Upon the event of their eighteenth birthday, they are considered full citizens but there is no ceremony acknowledging this relation or any correspondence between the new citizen and the government to this effect. Citizenship is assumed to exist, and the relation is assumed to remain viable until death or until it is renounced or dissolved by some other legal process. While citizenship poses few requirements or duties, secondary schools teach the basics of citizenship and create "informed and responsible citizens" who are "skilled in the arts of effective deliberation and action."[30] Teachers try to encourage students to believe that "their ballots count."[30]

However, there have been a few exceptions in which people born in the United States were not officially considered to be citizens. For example, in 1985, a renegade band of 143 Kickapoo Indians were naturalized; they had been living under an expressway bridge to Piedras Negras in Mexico.[31]

One controversial practice is maternity citizenship. It refers to the fact that babies born to foreign women while visiting the United States are automatically considered to have birthright citizenship.[32] It has been criticized as encouraging women to enter the country illegally to give birth to U.S. citizens; by one estimate, there were 400,000 so-called anchor babies born in 2008 of whom neither parent was a United States citizen.[32] The policy has been criticized further as an "antiquated practice" in which the baby becomes an "anchor" preventing deportation of "unlawfully present parents" and becomes an impediment to stabilizing the U.S. population.[32] However, proposals to further the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009 (H.R. 1868) have been criticized as being "beside the point" and that the real reason for illegal immigration is based on the need for employment.[32] 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that birthright citizenship can lead to chain migration in which a child born in the US to illegal immigrants permits an entire family to become eligible for American citizenship as a result.[29] What is notable regarding this is that people seeking entry into the United States by virtue of a family member's citizenship still require a sponsor, and an anchor baby does not meet the financial qualifications to be a sponsor.[33] Constitutional scholars[who?] have debated whether it's possible to end birthright citizenship through legislation or whether it requires a constitutional amendment.[29]

But the opposite situation, in which an American couple adopted a foreign-born child, used to mean huge headaches after the adoption process in terms of getting the foreign-born child recognized as a citizen. However, the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which took effect in February 2001, made it easier for parents adopting children in foreign countries to naturalize them.[34] Up until the law, "parents of youngsters adopted overseas were required to undergo a costly and cumbersome naturalization process that sometimes took two years to complete" in addition to usually complex international adoption procedures; the new law meant that 75,000 adopted foreign-born children automatically became citizens.[34] One estimate was that, in 2001, there were about 20,000 such adoptions every year, and the average wait for citizenship processing by the Immigration and Naturalization Service had been two years.[34] But with the new law, that process will be shortened considerably.

Americans who live in foreign countries and become members of other governments have, in some instances, been stripped of citizenship, although there have been court cases where decisions regarding citizenship have been reversed.[35]

Naturalized citizenship

Agency in charge

photograph of a white haired man on left (Albert Einstein) shaking hands with a man in a black robe.
Albert Einstein received his certificate of American citizenship from Judge Phillip Forman.

The agency in charge of admitting new citizens is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, commonly abbreviated as USCIS.[36] It is a bureau of the Department of Homeland Security. It offers web-based services.[37] The agency depends on application fees for revenue; in 2009, with a struggling economy, applications were down sharply, and consequently there was much less revenue to upgrade and streamline services.[37] There was speculation that if the administration of president Barack Obama passes immigration reform, then the agency could face a "welcome but overwhelming surge of Americans-in-waiting" and longer processing times for citizenship applications.[37] The USCIS has made efforts to digitize records.[38] A USCIS website says the "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is committed to offering the best possible service to you, our customer"[39] and which says "With our focus on customer service, we offer you a variety of services both before and after you file your case."[39] The website allowed applicants to estimate the length of time required to process specific types of cases, to check application status, and to access a customer guide.[39] The USCIS processes cases in the order they're received.[39]

Pathways to citizenship

  • Requirements. People applying to become citizens must satisfy certain requirements. For example, there have been requirements for applicants to have lived in the nation for five years (three if married to a U.S. citizen,) be of "good moral character" meaning no felony convictions, be of "sound mind" in the judgment of immigration officials, have knowledge of the Constitution, and be able to speak and understand English unless they're elderly or disabled.[40]
Two men in white Navy uniforms, shaking hands, holding up a certificate, in front of a large American red&white&blue flag.
Military service is often a key to citizenship; Aviation Machinist's Mate Elmer Rayos, right, receives his certificate of United States citizenship from the commanding officer of the USS George Washington.
  • Military participation is often a way for immigrant residents to become citizens. Since many people seek citizenship for its financial and social benefits, the promise of citizenship can be seen as a means of motivating persons to do dangerous activities such as fight in wars. For example, one account suggested the United States Military was recruiting "skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas" by promising an opportunity to become citizens "in as little as six months" in exchange for service in Afghanistan and Iraq where US forces are "stretched thin."[41] The option was not open to illegal immigrants.[41] One estimate was that in 2009 the US military had 29,000 foreign-born people currently serving who were not American citizens.[41] Generally, spouses of citizens, and non-citizens who served in the military, have less difficulty becoming citizens. Generally there is a strong link between military service and citizenship. One analyst noted that "many immigrants, not yet citizens, have volunteered to serve in the United States military forces ... Some have been killed and others wounded ... Perhaps this can be seen as a cynical attempt to qualify more easily for U.S. citizenship ... But I think that service in the U.S. military has to be taken as a pretty serious commitment to the United States."[42] Immigrant soldiers who fight for the US often have an easier and faster path to citizenship.[43] In 2002, President Bush signed an executive order to eliminate the three-year waiting period and made service personnel immediately eligible for citizenship.[43] In 2003, Congress voted to "cut the waiting period to become a citizen from three years down to one year" for immigrants who had served in the armed forces.[43] In 2003, of 1.4 million service members, 37,000 active-duty members were not citizens, and of these, 20 percent had applied for citizenship.[43] By June 2003, 12 non-citizens had died fighting for the United States in the Iraqi war.[43] The military has had a tradition of "filling out its ranks" with aliens living in the U.S.[44] Non-citizens fought in World War II.[44] The military has struggled to "fill its depleted ranks" by recruiting more non-US citizens.[45] But there is considerable anxiety about using foreigners to serve in the U.S. armed forces. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was quoted as saying: "When Rome went out and hired mercenary soldiers, Rome fell."[44]
  • Grandparent rule. One obscure ruling of section 322 of a 1994 immigration law enabled persons to emigrate to the United States if they could prove that a grandparent was a citizen.[46] In 2006, there were 4,000 applications of citizenship through grandparents. While parents of any nationality can use the law, Israelis comprise 90% of those taking advantage of the clause.[46]
  • Amnesties have happened in the past in which illegal residents could petition for citizenship if they could prove that they had been living in the nation for a specified number of years.[citation needed]
  • Citizenship test. Last, applicants must pass a simple citizenship test.[40] Up until recently, a test published by the Immigration and Naturalization Service asked questions such as "How many stars are there in our flag?" and "What is the Constitution?" and "Who is the president of the United States today?"[40] At one point, the Government Printing Office sold flashcards for $8.50 to help test takers prepare for the test.[47] In 2006, the government replaced the former trivia test with a ten-question oral test designed to "shun simple historical facts about America that can be recounted in a few words for more explanation about the principles of American democracy, such as freedom."[36] One reviewer described the new citizenship test as "thoughtful."[37] While some have criticized the new version of the test, officials counter that the new test is a "teachable moment" without making it conceptually more difficult, since the list of possible questions and answers, as before, will be publicly available.[36] Six correct answers constitutes a passing grade.[36] The new test probes for signs that immigrants "understand and share American values."[36]

Strong demand

According to a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, "Citizenship is a very, very valuable commodity."[48] However, one study suggested legal residents eligible for citizenship, but who don't apply, tend to have low incomes (41 percent), do not speak English well (60 percent), or have low levels of education (25 percent).[10] There is strong demand for citizenship based on the numbers of applications filed.[48] From 1920 to 1940, the number of immigrants to the United States who became citizens numbered about 200,000 each year; there was a spike after World War II, and then the level reduced to about 150,000 per year until resuming to the 200,000 level beginning about 1980.[49] In the mid-1990s to 2009, the levels rose to about 500,000 per year with considerable variation.[49] In 1996, more than one million people became citizens through naturalization.[50] In 1997, there were 1.41 million applications filed; in 2006, 1.38 million.[48] In the mid-1990s, the number of naturalized citizens in the United States rose from 6.5 million to 11 million in 2002.[51] By 2003, the pool of immigrants eligible to become naturalized citizens was 8 million, and of these, 2.7 million lived in California.[51] In 2003, the number of new citizens from naturalization was 463,204.[11] In 2007, the number was 702,589.[11] In 2007, 1.38 million people applied for citizenship creating a backlog.[48] In 2008, applications decreased to 525,786.[48]

Naturalization fees were $60 in 1989; $90 in 1991; $95 in 1994; $225 in 1999; $260 in 2002; $320 in 2003; $330 in 2005.[52] Application fees were increased from $330 to $595 and an additional $80 computerized fingerprinting fee was added.[48] The high fees have been criticized as putting up one more wall to citizenship.[36] Increases in fees for citizenship have drawn criticism.[53] Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner, doubted that fee increases deter citizenship-seekers.[48] In 2009, the number of immigrants applying for citizenship plunged 62 percent; reasons cited were the slowing economy and the cost of naturalization.[48]

Citizenship ceremonies

The citizenship process has been described as a ritual that is meaningful for many immigrants.[36] Many new citizens are sworn in during Fourth of July ceremonies.[11] Most citizenship ceremonies take place at offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.[6] However, one swearing-in ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia in 2008.[6] The judge who chose this venue explained: "I did it to honor our country's warriors and to give the new citizens a sense for what makes this country great."[6] According to federal law, citizenship applicants who are also changing their names must appear before a federal judge.[6]

Honorary citizenship

Picture of a painting of a man with a mustache wearing a red V collar; the man is slightly bald, and looking to his left.
Polish Count Kazimierz Pulaski was awarded with the honorary distinction of citizen 230 years after he fought and died in the Revolutionary War.

The title of "Honorary Citizen of the United States" has been granted seven times by an act of Congress or by a proclamation issued by the President pursuant to authorization granted by Congress. The seven individuals are Sir Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg, William Penn, Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Casimir Pulaski.

Sometimes, the government awarded non-citizen immigrants who died fighting for American forces with the posthumous title of U.S. citizenship, but this is not considered honorary citizenship.[43] In June 2003, Congress approved legislation to help families of fallen non-citizen soldiers.[43]

Corporate citizenship

There is a sense in which corporations can be considered as "citizens." Since corporations are often thought of as individuals in the eyes of the law, then it is possible to think of corporations as being like citizens. For example, the airline Virgin America asked the United States Department of Transportation to be treated as an American air carrier.[54] The advantage of "citizenship" is having the protection and support of the United States government when jockeying with foreign governments for access to air routes and overseas airports.[54] A competitor of Virgin America called Alaska Airlines asked for a review of the situation; according to "U.S. law, foreign ownership in a U.S. air carrier is limited to 25% of the voting interest in the carrier", but executives at Virgin America insisted the airline met this requirement.[54]

For the purposes of diversity jurisdiction in United States civil procedure, corporate citizenship is determined by the principal place of business of the corporation. There is some degree of disagreement among legal authorities as to how exactly this may be determined.

Another sense of "corporate citizenship" is a way to show support for causes such as social issues and the environment and, indirectly, gain a kind of "reputational advantage."[55]

Controversies

The issue of citizenship naturalization is a highly contentious matter in American politics, particularly regarding illegal immigrants. Candidates in the 2008 presidential election such as Rudolph Giuliani tried to "carve out a middle ground" on the issue of illegal immigration, but rivals such as John McCain advocated legislation requiring illegal immigrants to first leave the country before being eligible to apply as citizens.[56] Some measures to require proof of citizenship at polling places have met with controversy.[57]

Issues such as whether to include questions about current citizenship status in census questions have been debated in the Senate.[40] Generally, there tends to be controversy when citizenship impacts political issues. For example, issues such as asking questions about citizenship on the United States Census tend to cause controversy.[58] Census data affects state electoral clout; it also affects budgetary allocations.[58]

There have been controversies based on speculation about which way newly naturalized citizens are likely to vote. Since immigrants from many countries have been presumed to vote Democratic if naturalized, there have been efforts by Democratic administrations to streamline citizenship applications before elections to increase turnout; Republicans, in contrast, have exerted pressure to slow down the process.[59] In 1997, there were efforts to strip the citizenship of 5,000 newly approved immigrants who, it was thought, had been "wrongly naturalized"; a legal effort to do this presented enormous challenges.[59] An examination by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of 1.1 million people who were granted citizenship from September 1995 to September 1996 found 4,946 cases in which a criminal arrest should have disqualified an applicant or in which an applicant lied about his or her criminal history.[59] Before the 2008 election, there was controversy about the speed of the USCIS in processing applications; one report suggested that the agency would complete 930,000 applications in time for the newly processed citizens to vote in the November 2008 election.[60] Foreign-born naturalized citizens tend to vote at the same rates as natives. For example, in the state of New Jersey in the 2008 election, the foreign born represented 20.1 percent of the state's population of 8,754,560; of these, 636,000 were eighteen or older and hence eligible to vote; of eligible voters, 396,000 actually voted, which was about 62%.[61] So foreign-born citizens vote in roughly the same proportion (62%) as native citizens (67%).[61]

There has been controversy about the agency in charge of citizenship. The USCIS has been criticized as being a "notoriously surly, inattentive bureaucracy" with long backlogs in which "would-be citizens spent years waiting for paperwork."[37] Rules made by United States Congress and the federal government regarding citizenship are highly technical and often confusing, and the agency is forced to cope with enforcement within a complex regulatory milieu. There have been instances in which applicants for citizenship have been deported on technicalities.[62] One Pennsylvania doctor and his wife, both from the Philippines who applied for citizenship, and one Mr. Darnell from Canada who was married to an American with two children from this marriage, ran afoul of legal technicalities and faced deportation.[62] The New York Times reported that "Mr. Darnell discovered that a 10-year-old conviction for domestic violence involving a former girlfriend, even though it had been reduced to a misdemeanor and erased from his public record, made him ineligible to become a citizen–or even to continue living in the United States."[62] Overworked federal examiners under pressure to make "quick decisions" as well as "weed out security risks" have been described as preferring "to err on the side of rejection."[62] In 2000, 399,670 applications were denied (about 1/3 of all applications); in 2007, 89,683 applications for naturalization were denied, about 12 percent of those presented.[62]

Generally, eligibility for citizenship is denied for the millions of people living in the United States illegally, although from time to time, there have been amnesties. In 2006, there were mass protests numbering hundreds of thousands of people throughout the US demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants.[63] Many carried banners which read "We Have A Dream Too."[63] One estimate is that there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA in 2006.[63] There are many American high school students with citizenship issues.[64] One estimate is that there are 65,000 illegal immigrant students in 2008.[64] A 1982 Supreme Court decision entitled illegal immigrants to free education from kindergarten through high school.[64] But it is less clear about post-secondary education.

Illegal aliens who get arrested face difficulties in the courtroom as they have no constitutional right to challenge the outcome of their deportation hearings.[65] Writer Tom Barry of the Boston Review criticizes the crackdown against illegal immigrants since it has "flooded the federal courts with nonviolent offenders, besieged poor communities, and dramatically increased the U.S. prison population, while doing little to solve the problem itself."[66] Barry criticizes the United States' high incarceration rate as being "fives times greater than the average rate in the rest of the world."[66] Virginia Senator Jim Webb agreed that we are "doing something dramatically wrong in our criminal justice system."[66]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html
  2. ^ a b Robert Heineman (book reviewer) (2004-07). "Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public (book) by Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg". The Independent Institute. Retrieved 2009-12-16. The withholding tax has made the voluntary component of tax collection much less important, and the professional military has limited the need for citizen soldiers. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Note: A person is presumed to be a full citizen in the sense of having a duty to pay some types of taxes and serve on juries, upon reaching the age of majority. At present the age of majority is 18 years.
  4. ^ 8 U.S.C. § 12
  5. ^ See 8 U.S.C. § 1481; "Giving Up US Citizenship: Is it Right for You?" http://www.usvisalawyers.co.uk/article14.html
  6. ^ a b c d e Jerry Markon (June 12, 2008). "Judge Offers Lesson In U.S. Citizenship". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Ellis had moved his Alexandria courtroom to Arlington National Cemetery to swear in immigrants from more than 30 countries as U.S. citizens, the first time a naturalization ceremony was held on the hallowed grounds in the cemetery's 144-year history. He wanted to impress upon the new citizens the sacrifices made for their freedom. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Peter J. Spiro, Beyond citizenship: American identity after globalization (2008). Oxford University Press, p. 99.
  8. ^ Peter J. Spiro, Beyond citizenship: American identity after globalization (2008). Oxford University Press, p. 98.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference tws19nova14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c d e "Citizenship and Civic Engagement". mpI Migration Policy Institute. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20. US citizenship, which is attained through the naturalization process, brings many benefits to immigrants and to the United States.
  11. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference tws19nov34 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ PRNewswire (April 27, 2009). "'Outstanding American by Choice Award' Announced by the United States Citizenship". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Recipients of the award display exceptional accomplishments through professional achievements and leadership, civic participation, responsible citizenship, and demonstrate outstanding commitment to the United States while embodying the values and ideals that are inherent to this country, and within each of its citizens.
  13. ^ Jere Longman (March 3, 2000). "OLYMPICS; Marathon Runner's U.S. Citizenship Is on the Line". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Khalid Khannouchi, the world-record holder in the marathon, has still not given up hope of obtaining American citizenship in time to compete in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. If he does gain citizenship, he is considering the unusual prospect of running both the London Marathon on April 16 and the Olympic trials three weeks later in Pittsburgh, friends said. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ a b Robert D. Kaplan (1997-12-01). "Was Democracy Just a Moment?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2009-11-27. Then there are malls, with their own rules and security forces, as opposed to public streets; private health clubs as opposed to public playgrounds; incorporated suburbs with strict zoning; and other mundane aspects of daily existence in which–perhaps without realizing it, because the changes have been so gradual–we opt out of the public sphere and the "social contract" for the sake of a protected setting. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Robert D. Kaplan (1997-12-01). "Was Democracy Just a Moment?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2009-11-27. Lee Kuan Yew's offensive neo-authoritarianism ... is paternalistic, meritocratic, and decidedly undemocratic, has forged prosperity from abject poverty ... Doesn't liberation from filth and privation count as a human right? Jeffrey Sachs ... writes that "good government" means relative safety from corruption, from breach of contract, from property expropriation, and from bureaucratic inefficiency. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ "Title 8 of Code of Federal Regulations (8 CFR) \ 8 CFR Part 1337- Oath of allegiance \ § 1337.1 Oath of allegiance". U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 2011-09-16. I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; ... {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference tws19nova11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Jonathan Alter (http://www.newsweek.com/id/52804). "WHO CARES ABOUT IOWA?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2011-07-15. While New Hampshire has no minorities or big cities (there's plenty of both in upcoming primaries), the New England town-hall meeting was the earliest form of American democracy... {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ Jean Bethke Elshtain (1996-10-29). "Democracy at Century's End (speech)". Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2011-07-15. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his classic work Democracy in America, argued that one reason the American democracy he surveyed was so sturdy was that citizens took an active part in public affairs. ... {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ Paula Span (November 20, 2005). "JERSEY; An Exercise In Community". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-07-15. A few years ago, in an influential book called Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, warned of the decline in civic engagement, the loss of social capital that keeps neighborhoods and towns vital. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ Naomi Wolf (November 25, 2007). "Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You". Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-07-15. Is America still America if millions of us no longer know how democracy works? When I speak on college campuses, I find that students are either baffled by democracy's workings or that they don't see any point in engaging in the democratic process. Sometimes both {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  22. ^ Naomi Wolf (September 27, 2007). "Books: The End of America". Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-07-15. I want to summarize why I believe we are facing a real crisis. My reading showed me that there are 10 key steps that would-be despots always take when they are seeking to close down an open society or to crush a democracy movement, and we are seeing each of those in the US today {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ Craig J. Calhoun (1992). "Habermas and the public sphere". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2011-07-15. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Note: after the Emancipation Proclamation during the US civil war, blacks became technically enfranchised as citizens although segregation and discrimination did not begin to break down until the twentieth century
  25. ^ Note: 1919 (?) women achieved the right to vote after a Constitutional Amendment.
  26. ^ See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(36) and 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(38) Providing the term "State" and "United States" definitions on the U.S. Federal Code, Inmigration and Nationality Act. 8 U.S.C. § 1101a
  27. ^ 8 U.S.C. § 1401 , 8 U.S.C. § 1401a , 8 U.S.C. § 1401b , 8 U.S.C. § 1402 , 8 U.S.C. § 1403 , 8 U.S.C. § 1404 , 8 U.S.C. § 1405 , 8 U.S.C. § 1406 , 8 U.S.C. § 1407 , 8 U.S.C. § 1408 , 8 U.S.C. § 1409
  28. ^ "3222 CITIZENSHIP BY BIRTH". Department of Social Services. State of South Dakota. April 2003. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  29. ^ a b c d "Romney Eyeing End to Birthright Citizenship". ABC News. July 22, 2007. Retrieved 2009-11-19. ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney backs an end to the policy known as chain migration but he has not yet reached a conclusion on the more controversial question of whether the United States should end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.
  30. ^ a b Susan Jo Keller (October 27, 1996). "Bringing Up Citizens". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-12-16. But teachers are quick to say that it takes more to produce a good citizen than using their 50-minute slices of a student's day for a week or two before the election to talk about the Presidential race. And convincing students that their ballots count is only part of it. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ United Press International (November 22, 1985). "Around the Nation; 143 Renegade Kickapoos Accept U.S. Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Immigration officials today distributed citizenship cards to a renegade band of Kickapoo Indians who have resisted the ways of the white man for nearly two centuries. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ a b c d Roy Beck (July 24, 2009). "'Anchor' Babies: No More U.S. Citizenship". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Maternity tourism is just the beginning of the silliness of birthright citizenship that goes to the babies of foreign students, temporary foreign workers, international travelers—and the millions who break the law to criminally enter this country. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  33. ^ USCIS (2008-08-01). "General Information–How Do I... Financially Sponsor Someone Who Wants to Immigrate?" (PDF). U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved 2009-12-07. Under U.S. law, every person who immigrates based on a relative petition must have a financial sponsor. If you choose to sponsor your relative's immigration by filing a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, you must agree to be the financial sponsor... {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ a b c Eric Schmitt (February 27, 2001). "Children Adopted Abroad Win Automatic Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. More than 75,000 children adopted from abroad and living in this country will automatically become United States citizens on Tuesday because of changes Congress made in immigration law last year. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ "METRO DATELINE; American Citizenship Restored to Kahane Published". The New York Times. February 21, 1987. Retrieved 2009-11-19. A Federal judge yesterday restored the American citizenship of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born founder of the Jewish Defense League who emigrated to Israel more than 15 years ago. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  36. ^ a b c d e f g Ben Arnoldy (November 17, 2006). "US to unveil new citizenship test". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-11-19. To gain American citizenship, immigrants must be able to answer such questions as: What was the 49th state added to our Union? What color are the stars on our flag? And who wrote the Star Spangled Banner? Sound trivial? The US government thinks so, and plans to roll out a new pilot test this winter. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  37. ^ a b c d e Editorial staff (September 25, 2009). "A Commitment to Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Reports this week that the United States citizenship agency was yet again struggling with a budget shortfall, and considering raising fees on the hopeful immigrants who are its main source of revenue, could have led any American to wonder what kind of beacon to the world we are anymore. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  38. ^ PRNewswire (May 26, 2009). "CSC Receives $27 Million Task Order From United States Citizenship and Immigration..." Reuters. Retrieved 2009-11-19. CSC (NYSE: CSC) announced today that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) awarded the company a task order to conduct scanning, indexing and file management operations at a records digitization facility. The new agreement, which was signed during the company's fourth quarter fiscal year 2009, has a one-year performance period and a contract value of $27 million. {{cite news}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 26 (help)
  39. ^ a b c d "USCIS Processing Time Information". United States government–U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is committed to offering the best possible service to you, our customer. With our focus on customer service, we offer you a variety of services both before and after you file your case.
  40. ^ a b c d Andrew Taylor (2009-11-05). "Senate blocks census US-citizenship question". Newark Star-Ledger (nj.com). Retrieved 2009-11-19. Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ a b c Julia Preston (February 14, 2009). "U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  42. ^ Cite error: The named reference tws19nov41 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  43. ^ a b c d e f g Tatiana Morales (July 4, 2003). "Citizenship For Immigrant Soldiers". CBS News. Retrieved 2009-11-19. An easy assumption to make is that the men and women serving in our armed forces are American citizens. But that is not always the case. When the war broke out, and casualties started to mount, it was discovered that some who died were still waiting to become Americans.
  44. ^ a b c "National Affairs: Passport to Citizenship". Time Magazine. 1951-04-02. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Though the Army had never gone abroad to hire foreign mercenaries, it had long filled out its ranks with aliens living in the U.S. (In World War II, an honorable service record gave aliens citizenship in three years instead of five.) {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  45. ^ Tom Regan (December 26, 2006). "US military may recruit foreigners to serve". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Struggling to fill its depleted ranks using American citizenry, the US military is considering recruiting more non-US citizens, according to Pentagon officials. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) [dead link]
  46. ^ a b Miriam Jordan (October 16, 2007). "Citizenship via Grandparents". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-11-19. A swelling number of Israelis are flying to the U.S., armed with tattered U.S. high school diplomas and faded marriage certificates, to try to tap into an obscure clause in U.S. immigration law that enables some grandparents to pass citizenship to their grandchildren. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) [dead link]
  47. ^ Bill Nichols (2006-05-16). "Study guide for U.S. citizenship test omits freedom of press". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-11-19. A set of flashcards designed to help applicants for U.S. citizenship learn basic civics has become one of the most popular items sold by the Government Printing Office. But the $8.50 flashcards — which contain questions and answers from the actual citizenship exam — won't help immigrants learn much about the role of the press in American democracy. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ a b c d e f g h Tara Bahrampour (September 12, 2009). "Number of Immigrants Applying for U.S. Citizenship Is Down 62%, Study Finds". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-11-19. The number of immigrants applying to become U.S. citizens plunged 62 percent last year as the cost of naturalization rose and the economy soured, according to an analysis released Friday by the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  49. ^ a b "Number of Immigrants Who Became US Citizens: Fiscal Year 1920 to 2008". mpI Migration Policy Institute. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  50. ^ William Booth (November 17, 1996). "The U.S. Citizenship Test: Learning, And Earning, Their Stripes". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-11-19. A record number of immigrants, more than 1 million, will become U.S. citizens this year. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  51. ^ a b Michael Fix, Jeffrey S. Passel, Kenneth Sucher (2003-09). "Immigrant Families and Workers–Trends in Naturalization (pdf)". Urban Institute–Immigration Studies Program. Retrieved 2009-11-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ "Citizenship Fee Increases In Context Figure 1. Naturalization Applications Processed and Pending at USCIS, FY 1985 to 2005". mpI Migration Policy Institute. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  53. ^ "Agency Plans to Double U.S. Citizenship Fee". The New York Times. September 4, 1997. Retrieved 2009-11-19. The cost of becoming a United States citizen would more than double under a draft proposal by the Clinton Administration, but the idea is drawing fire from advocates for immigrants. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has forwarded to the Justice Department a plan to raise a variety of fees, including increasing the citizenship application to $200 or more from the current $95. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  54. ^ a b c Harry R. Weber (2009-09-04). "Virgin America to DOT: Dismiss citizenship challenge". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Privately held air carrier Virgin America asked the Department of Transportation on Thursday to deny Alaska Airlines' repeated challenges to its U.S. citizenship status and close the case. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  55. ^ Business Wire (September 23, 2009). "In Depth of Recession, American Business Confirm Value of Corporate Citizenship; Focus on Sustainable Products and Workforce Development, New Survey Shows". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-11-19. The 2009 State of Corporate Citizenship survey results reveal that, despite the recession, corporate citizenship practices are ingrained in increasing numbers of American businesses. Many business leaders report that attention to corporate citizenship efforts is more important in a recession. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  56. ^ "Giuliani Sidesteps Whether Illegals Should Get Citizenship Without First Leaving U.S." ABC News. March 23, 2007. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sidestepped whether he supports giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship without first requiring them to leave the country while campaigning Thursday in the Washington, D.C. area.
  57. ^ Ian Urbina (May 12, 2008). "Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  58. ^ a b Ed O'Keefe (2009-11-19). "Eye Opener: Citizenship and the Census". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Happy Friday! Should the 2010 Census account for a person's citizenship status? At least two Republican lawmakers think so, arguing the forthcoming Congressional reapportionment should not be swayed by illegal immigrants, who whose numbers will give more seats to certain states. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  59. ^ a b c Eric Schmitt (May 24, 1997). "U.S. Is Seeking To Strip 5,000 Of Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. The Clinton Administration will seek to strip the citizenship of nearly 5,000 immigrants who were wrongly naturalized in an immigration drive last year, Federal officials said today. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  60. ^ Julia Preston (March 15, 2008). "Goal Set for Reducing Backlog on Citizenship Applications". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Immigration officials said on Friday that they expected to complete about 930,000 citizenship applications in the fiscal year ending September 30, reducing a huge backlog in a time frame that would allow many new citizens to register to vote in the November elections. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  61. ^ a b "Role of Foreign-born Voters in Elections". mpI Migration Policy Institute. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20. Note: click on "New Jersey" MPI election profiles for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, examining voter registration by nativity, providing breakdowns for foreign-born citizens as a share of total state population, and detailing their turnout in the 2004 general election, and by ethnicity.
  62. ^ a b c d e Julia Preston (April 12, 2008). "Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Dr. Pedro Servano always believed that his journey from his native Philippines to the life of a community doctor in Pennsylvania would lead to American citizenship. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  63. ^ a b c Laura Parker (2006-04-11). "Immigrants, backers demand citizenship". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2009-11-19. Hundreds of thousands of people demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took to the streets in dozens of cities from New York to San Diego on Monday in some of the most widespread demonstrations since the mass protests began around the country last month. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  64. ^ a b c Eddy Ramírez (August 7, 2008). "Should Colleges Enroll Illegal Immigrants?". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2009-11-19. A native of Poland, she has resided in the United States unlawfully for most of her 21 years. Unless federal immigration laws change and allow undocumented students like her to become legal residents, she won't be able to put her degree to use and work as an American engineer. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  65. ^ Dan Slater (January 9, 2009). "Mukasey Limits Ineffective Assistance Challenge for Aliens". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-12-16. On Wednesday, Michael Mukasey ruled that aliens have no constitutional right to challenge the outcome of their deportation hearings based on their lawyers' mistakes. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  66. ^ a b c Tom Barry (2009-11-01). "A Death in Texas–Profits, poverty, and immigration converge". Boston Review. Retrieved 2009-12-16. Although the term "criminal aliens" has no precise definition, its broadening use reflects a trend in dealing with immigrants. With the post-9/11 creation of DHS and its two agencies—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—a wide sector of aliens increasingly became the focus of joint efforts by immigration and law enforcement officers. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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