“if you read the State Department’s own manual on citizenship they specifically separate the definition of Natural Born citizen from Naturalized and Birthright Citizenship.”
Really? Do you have a copy? Or is it online?
I know that there are three types of statutory citizenship: native born (born in the U.S. to legal residents); citizenship-by-statute (born overseas to one or two U.S. citizen parents); and naturalization (foreign-born but naturalized as citizen).
Natural Born Citizen only appears in the U.S.Constitution as an eligibility requirement for the Presidency. It is NOT now, nor has it ever been, a type of citizenship.
“if you read the State Department’s own manual on citizenship they specifically separate the definition of Natural Born citizen from Naturalized and Birthright Citizenship.”I wrote about this a long time ago. I went through my postings and I have been yapping way too much. It would seem to take a long time to get back to those discussions, but I looked this up and was shocked to find this discussion.
I will see if there is any way to dig this up again.
SatinDoll said:
I know that there are three types of statutory citizenship: native born (born in the U.S. to legal residents); citizenship-by-statute (born overseas to one or two U.S. citizen parents); and naturalization (foreign-born but naturalized as citizen).
There is much confusion with regards to citizenship classifications. The 14th Amendment did a wonderful job at obfuscating common citizenship laws.
Only two (2) different classifications of citizens exist within the U.S. Constitution:
- Natural Born Citizen
- Citizen of the United States
The 14th Amendment is very clear on who constitutes a Citizen of the United States. These are the types of Citizens of the United States:
- Naturalized Citizens
- Citizens born under the Jurisdiction of the United States
This bears repeating...
The 14th Amendment in no way clarified or redefined the Natural Born Citizen clause in Article II. It couldn't. The 14th Amendment was written to ensure emancipated slaves would be considered citizens of the United States upon its ratification in 1866. Slaves were considered property,
not citizens. They could never be natural-born because there is no such thing as a retroactive natural-born citizen.
Since we know the 14th Amendment in no way changed the definition of "Natural Born Citizen", we must turn our attention to other definitions commonly accepted in 1787. The mere mention of this phrase is somewhat difficult to pinpoint, even at the time of the Convention. However, de Vattel, Cicero, Smith and several citations of correspondence between the framers reveal its correct definition.
A natural born citizen is one who is, at birth:
- Born on U.S. property
- Born to a citizen father
- Born with sole allegiance to the U.S.
We deduce this definition by:
- Eliminating 14th Amendment citizenship requirements from the equation (Article II's Grandfather clause guarantees this)
- Reviewing International Law based on de Vattel, Smith, and others
- Knowing that wives almost always assumed their husband's citizenship between 1787 and 1919
- Understanding the allegiance requirement based on John Jay's correspondence with George Washington