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Naturalization Information
What Is Naturalization?
Naturalization is the process whereby a person becomes a
national of a nation, or a citizen of a country, other than the one of his
birth.
Naturalization and the Constitution
In the United States of America, naturalization is mentioned
in the Constitution.
Naturalization is mentioned in the Constitution proper. Congress is given the
power to prescribe a uniform rule of naturalization, which was administered by
state courts. There was some confusion about which courts could naturalize; the
final ruling was that it could be done by any "court of record having common-law
jurisdiction and a clerk (prothonotary) and seal."
The Constitution also mentions "natural born citizen". The first naturalization
Act (drafted by Thomas Jefferson) used the phrases "natural born" and "native
born" interchangeably. To be "naturalized" therefore means to become as if
"natural born" -- i.e. a citizen.
There is an interesting loophole here in that the Constitution does not mandate
race-neutral naturalization. Up until 1952, the Naturalization Acts written by
Congress still allowed only white persons to become naturalized as citizens
(except for two years in the 1870's which the Supreme Court declared to be a
mistake.)
Naturalization is also mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment. Before that
Amendment, individual states set their own standards for citizenship (there was
no national citizenship). The Amendment states that "all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof shall
be citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside."
Note also that the Amendment is ambiguous on the issue of singular or plural
United States. In the early days the phrase "United States" was used as a
singular or a plural according to the meaning. After the Civil War, it was
generally always a singular. The Amendment does not say "its jurisdiction" or
"their jurisdiction" but "the jurisdiction thereof".
Congressional Naturalization Acts
The Naturalization Act of 1795 set the initial parameters on naturalization:
"free, White persons" who had been resident for five years or more. The
Naturalization Act of 1798, part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, was passed by
the Federalists and extended the residency requirement from five to fourteen
years. It specifically targeted Irish and French immigrants who were involved in
Anti-federalist politics. It was repealed in 1802.
An 1862 law allowed honorably discharged Army veterans of any war to petition
for naturalization, without having filed a declaration of intent, after only one
year of residence in the United States. An 1894 law extended the same privilege
to honorably discharged 5-year veterans of the Navy or Marine Corps. Over
192,000 aliens were naturalized between May 9, 1918, and June 30, 1919, under an
act of May 9, 1918. Laws enacted in 1919, 1926, 1940, and 1952 continued
preferential treatment provisions for veterans. [Schulze, Lorine McGinnis (2003)
Passage of the Fourteenth Amendment meant that, in theory, all persons born in
the U.S. are citizens regardless of race. However it was not applied to Asians
at the time. The enabling legislation for the naturalization aspects of the
Fourteenth Amendment was the 1870 Page Act, which allowed naturalization of
"aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent," but is silent
about other races.
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese workers and specifically barred
them from naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1917, (Barred Zone Act)
extended those restrictions to almost all Asians.
The 1922 Cable Act specified that women marrying aliens ineligible for
naturalization lose their US citizenship. At the time, all Asians were
ineligible for naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1924 barred entry of all
those ineligible for naturalization, which again meant non-Filipino Asians.
Following the Spanish American War in 1898, Philippine residents were classified
as US nationals. But the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, or Philippine Independence
Act, reclassified Filipinos as aliens, and set a quota of 50 immigrants per
year, and otherwise applying the Immigration Act of 1924 to them.
Asians were first permitted naturalization by the 1943 Magnuson Act, which
repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act. India and the Philippines were allowed 100
annual immigrants under the 1946 Filipino Naturalization Act. The War Brides Act
of 1945 permitted soldiers to bring back their foreign wives.
The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (better known as the McCarran-Walter
Act), lifted racial restrictions, but kept the quotas in place. The Immigration
Act of 1965 finally allowed Asians and all persons from all nations be given
equal access to immigration and naturalization.
Illegal immigration became a major issue in the US at the end of the 20th
Century. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, while tightening border
controls, also provided the opportunity of naturalization for illegal aliens who
had been in the country for at least four years.
For more free legal information on Immigration Laws, please use the
links below:
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