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World War II Vet Learns He's Not a U.S. Citizen
MyFoxPhoenix.com ^ | March 23, 2011

Posted on 03/24/2011 11:11:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

CENTRALIA, WA - Imagine living in this country for nearly a 100 years only to learn you're not a citizen.

It happened to a 95-year-old military veteran in Washington named Leeland Davidson.

Davidson knew he was born in Canada in 1916, but figured because his parents were American, he was automatically a U.S. citizen.

He was able to join the Navy and served in World War II, but when Davidson recently went to get the driver's license he needed to go to Canada to visit relatives, he learned otherwise.

(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxphoenix.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: birthright; citizenship; immigration; naturalborncitizen
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To: Kaslin

He lives our culture and speaks our language, so he’s not expensive to us. ...same with other English speaking Canadians born in Canada. That should make all of the difference, and toss political correctness to where it belongs.


41 posted on 03/24/2011 12:11:07 PM PDT by familyop ("Don't worry, they'll row for a month before they figure out I'm fakin' it." --Deacon, "Waterworld")
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To: familyop

Except that he may be a political prop this could probably be fixed post haste.


42 posted on 03/24/2011 12:13:21 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: Mr. Bird

You are right. I had a baby in another country and I got him his American birth certificate from the Embassy tout suite thereafter. He is a full American citizen, but he can’t be President. (too bad for me, huh? I have to miss out on all those free trips the mothers now get to go on...)

This guy’s parents only had to file for his American citizenship, but they did not bother.

Today what this means is that the American birth certificate a child born overseas gets, is his only original copy. There is nothing in the States on file for my son like there are for US born kids. Of course now his passport files exist, based on his BC. (remind you of anyone???)


43 posted on 03/24/2011 12:16:30 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Kaslin

I had always been under the impression that if you joined the military and got an honorable discharge you got naturalized.

My vet that was from merry ol England overstayed his visa and got drafted earned his papers this way after a tour in VN


44 posted on 03/24/2011 12:19:31 PM PDT by Harold Shea (RVN `70 - `71)
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To: brytlea

The child of 2 U. S. citizens would be a citizen regardless of where he was born. You quote a current law, but I am going from what I was taught at the Federal law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco GA during the Immigration portion of my training at the US Customs Academy in 1985. The course was taught by our Chief Counsel lawyers. They can’t apply a new law that would deprive him of his rights, when it wasn’t passed until many years after he was here.

He is a U. S. Citizen.


45 posted on 03/24/2011 1:01:55 PM PDT by passionfruit (When illegals become legal, even they won't do the work Americans won't do)
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To: passionfruit
I can't say what the law stipulated when he was born, prior to 1952, however:

For persons born between December 24, 1952 and November 14, 1986, a person is a U.S. citizen if all of the following are true (except if born out-of-wedlock)[7]:
The person's parents were married at the time of birth
One of the person's parents was a U.S. citizen when the person was born
The citizen parent lived at least ten years in the United States before the child's birth;
A minimum of 5 of these 10 years in the United States were after the citizen parent's 14th birthday.

I don't know that any of this pertains to him, however, it's not so simply cut and dried that the only stipulation is that the parents be citizens (which is the ONLY point I'm making). This comes from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law#Birth_abroad_to_two_United_States_citizens

Which of course could be wrong, and the law prior to 1952 I do not know. You are free to show me more links, it's difficult to find info.

46 posted on 03/24/2011 1:19:44 PM PDT by brytlea (A tick stole my tagline....)
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To: RC2

“...if two people are married and US citizens and are expecting a baby....if they travel to another country and the baby is born.....that baby is not a US citizen?”

Yes and no.

A baby’s birth must be registered with the U.S.Embassy (or, at least the State Department) and becomes a citizen-by-statute (jus sanguinis) because the parents are U.S. citizens. Military personnel have similar requirements when births occur while stationed overseas.


47 posted on 03/24/2011 1:20:06 PM PDT by SatinDoll (NO FOREIGN NATIONALS AS OUR PRESIDENT!)
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To: RC2
married and US citizens and are expecting a baby....if they travel to another country

Whoa Nellie, pregnant, about to give birth and they leave and go to a foreign country in 1916? That's absolutely preposterous. A pregnant woman wouldn't travel when she is about to give birth!

Just ask any troll, they'll tell ya.

48 posted on 03/24/2011 1:42:32 PM PDT by patlin (Ignorance is Bliss for those who choose to wear rose colored glasses)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

My son was born in 1963 and my daughter in 1970. My husband retired in 1979 from the Army


49 posted on 03/24/2011 1:53:23 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

[My son was born in 1963 and my daughter in 1970. My husband retired in 1979 from the Army.]

I tried to replace a title, lost in moving back to Tennessee, on a car I purchased in Colorado. Colorado won’t accept photocopies of any ID cards I send them to establish my identity. They wanted me to send my actual Tennessee drivers license which is not returnable. I got on the phone with them and apparently I can get a Tennessee photo ID at the drivers bureau and send that to them.


50 posted on 03/24/2011 2:11:18 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: patlin

The story is from Centralia, Washington. Perhaps the parents lived near the border and had gone to Vancouver or some other place just across the border—the traveling may not have been a very long distance. If the 95-year-old man has relatives in Canada, perhaps his parents were visiting relatives there then.


51 posted on 03/24/2011 2:26:45 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Red Badger
By any reasonable standard there was no problem with McCain's eligibility, but the NY Times tried to insinuate that there was a possible problem in the spring of 2008 as I recall. Perhaps just a pre-emptive strike to deter people making Obama's status an issue (although that was before it was clear that Obama would be the nominee).
52 posted on 03/24/2011 2:29:12 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Yeah, all you have to do is go to the drivers license place and ask for a TN photo ID. You might have to tell them for what purpose you need it, since you already have a valid drivers license


53 posted on 03/24/2011 2:55:25 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Red Badger

McCain wasn’t born in the PCZ he was born at the public hospital in Colon which is in Panama proper. The PCZ hospital was built until a few years after he was dropped on his head.


54 posted on 03/24/2011 3:34:03 PM PDT by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Verginius Rufus; Kaslin

McCain wasn’t born in the PCZ he was born at the public hospital in Colon which is in Panama proper. The PCZ hospital wasn’t built until a few years after he was dropped on his head.


55 posted on 03/24/2011 3:51:32 PM PDT by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: bjorn14

LOL!¡!!¡!¡!¡!!!!!!!!!!!


56 posted on 03/24/2011 5:24:32 PM PDT by Red Badger (How can anyone look at the situation in Libya and be for gun control is beyond stupid. It's suicide.)
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To: brytlea
Altho now that you think about it, he is not really a citizen, he has a SS #, was allowed into the military, etc and they never caught it? Clearly there are problems with the system.

I hope you do realize that in 1916 people weren't obsessed with paperwork, databases, and forms like they are now.

A family bible was just as good as a birth certificate, people were born at home, and we had open immigration at the time. States didn't have drivers licenses and your identification was the name that came out of your mouth.

57 posted on 03/24/2011 10:24:25 PM PDT by triumphant values (Never criticize that to your right.)
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To: Kaslin
Assuming his parents were Americans, he is not only a citizen but, being well over 35 and having resided here for well over 14 years, he qualifies to run for president.

Anyone who disagrees is an anti-military traitor ally of Bitch Napolitano :).

58 posted on 03/24/2011 10:31:05 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Yaelle
He is a full American citizen, but he can’t be President. (too bad for me, huh? I have to miss out on all those free trips the mothers now get to go on...)

Incorrect. Nowhere is it written that you must be born on US soil to be Natural Born. Only that you are a citizen by birth (as opposed to becoming one later, such as Arnold and Henry).

59 posted on 03/24/2011 10:35:06 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Kaslin
My son and my daughter were both born in Germany about 6 years apart in the same US Army hospital which made it US territory.

No, it didn't. If it was US territory, then any Kraut born there would be a US citizen by way of the 14th. Since that's not the case, it wasn't US territory in any relevant legal sense.

We had to travel to the US Consulate in Munich to get their US Birth certificate

Which would not have been necessary, had the Army hospital been US territory, would it? In any case, it was a mere formality to ratify the fact that your kids were citizens from birth and hence eligible to run upon attaining the age of 35.

60 posted on 03/24/2011 10:48:35 PM PDT by cynwoody
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