Santana Case Study

The Supreme Court recently has rejected a federal law that treats children born overseas to unmarried parents differently for purposes of citizenship. Under the law, US citizen fathers would have to spend at least five years in the states before the child could become a citizen, while the mother would only have to spend one year (Vogue, 2017). The rejection of the law comes from the case of Luis Ramon Morales-Santana. Santana’s parents were unmarried when he was born. His mother was a Dominican Republic citizen, while his father was partially a US citizen (he had not spent at least five years in the US after age 14). Santana first came to the United States with a permit, but was removed from the proceedings because of some crimes he had committed. Santana claimed that he was US citizen because of his father’s citizenship status, however, the board of immigration disagreed with this as do I. I do not believe Santana should be granted citizenship.
One of the issue with Santana’s claim is the Immigration and Nationality act of 1952. This act, in place before the time of Santana’s birth in 1962 states that a child born outside of the United States to an unwed citizen father and a non-citizen mother has citizenship at …show more content…
“The Justice Department argued that court precedent has "made clear that mothers and fathers are not typically similarly situated with respect to their legal status concerning the child at the moment of birth” (Vogue, 2017). I agree with the court’s decision to stand by the law in place and not grant Santa citizenship. Not only would that violate the Immigration and Nationality act, but Santana also committed felonies while on lawful permit. Now he is concerned with his citizenship status now that he is in the removal process. He had ample time before the felonies to apply for citizenship if