The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has specifically recognized in a recent
case that one may be a natural born citizen of the United Sates in two ways: either by being
born in the United States, or by being born abroad of at least one citizen-parent who has met the
residency requirement.
In
United States v. Carlos Jesus Marguet-Pillado
, a case dealing with the
propriety of an appeal based on requested jury instructions not given, the court stated:
No one disputes that Marguet-Pillados requested instruction was an accurate statement of
the law, in that it correctly stated the two circumstances in which an individual born in 1968
is a natural born United States citizen: (1) that the person was born in the United States or (2)
born outside the United States to a biologically
-related United States citizen parent who met
certain residency requirements.
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From same link as above
Principally he argues that he is, in fact, a citizen of the United States because he has derivative citizenship and that, in any event, evidence was improperly admitted at trial.
Carlos Marguet was born in Tijuana, Mexico, on November 4, 1968, to Juana Pillado, a Mexican citizen, and an unknown biological father.
Michael L. Marguet (Michael Marguet), a United States citizen, is not Carlos Marguet's biological father and was not married to Carlos Marguet's mother at the time that Carlos Marguet was born. However, Michael Marguet was named as his father on a Mexican birth certificate filed August 22, 1973, and has held out Carlos Marguet as his own son. In an interview with a United States Immigration Examiner, Michael Marguet indicated that he wanted to marry Carlos Marguet's mother and had registered Carlos Marguet as his own child so that both of them could immigrate to the United States and live with Michael Marguet. However, he said, Carlos Marguet was not his real child. On the date of the interview, Carlos Marguet became a lawful permanent resident.
American statutory law has consistently recognized the rights of American parents to transmit their citizenship to their children. (Breyer, J., dissenting). The majority opinion went on to note that ever since the Civil War, the transmission of American citizenship from parent to child, jus sanguinis, has played a role secondary to that of the transmission of a citizenship by birthplace, jus soli.