Citizenship

The 14th Amendment

• ‘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.”

Citizenship by birth

• Jus Soli- A child becomes an American Citizen if born in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, any United States Embassy, or aboard a United States public vessel anywhere in the world.

Jus Sanguinis

• A child born to an American citizen on foreign soil becomes an American citizen if:

• Both parents are American citizens and at least one has lived on American soil.

• One parent is an American citizen who has lived in the United States for at least 10 years, 5 of them after age 14, and the child has lived in the U.S continuously for at least 5 years between the ages of 14 and 28

Naturalization

• Naturalization of both parents (one okay if divorced or deceased) automatically naturalizes the children under the age of 16. Adopted children from abroad are naturalized if under 18 when adoption becomes final.

• A person can not gain or lose citizenship by marriage. The only significant effect marriage has on is to shorten the required time for naturalization.

Loss of citizenship

• Congress can’t take away your citizenship.• This is called expatriation.• You are allowed to voluntarily abandon or

renounce it.• On certain government issue forms you

may be asked “Have you ever renounced your U.S. Citizenship?”

• Congress sets the rules for becoming a citizen

Asylum

• It is possible to apply for citizenship on the grounds that if you are deported your home country will harm you.

• This is called asylum.

The Dream Act

• Would allow children brought to the United States by non-citizens who are living here to apply for citizenship

• The applicants would have to complete two years of college or serve in our armed forces for two years.

• Critics of the dream act say that it amounts to amnesty for breaking the law.