Citizenship Reform Act of 2005

Citizenship Reform Act of 2005 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to limit automatic citizenship at birth to a child born in the United States who: (1) was born in wedlock to a parent either of whom is a U.S. citizen or national, or is an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence who maintains such residence; or (2) was born out of wedlock to a mother who is a U.S. citizen or national, or is an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence who maintains such residence.

Defines "born in wedlock" to exclude common law marriages.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 698 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 698

  To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny citizenship at 
  birth to children born in the United States of parents who are not 
                 citizens or permanent resident aliens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 9, 2005

 Mr. Deal of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mrs. Jo Ann 
  Davis of Virginia, Mr. Gingrey, Mr. Kingston, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. 
 Smith of Texas, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Norwood, Mr. Baker, 
 Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. 
    Goode, Mr. Manzullo, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California, and Mr. 
  Tancredo) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny citizenship at 
  birth to children born in the United States of parents who are not 
                 citizens or permanent resident aliens.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Citizenship Reform Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to deny automatic citizenship at 
birth to children born in the United States to parents who are not 
citizens or permanent resident aliens.

SEC. 3. CITIZENSHIP AT BIRTH FOR CHILDREN OF NON-CITIZEN, NON-PERMANENT 
              RESIDENT ALIENS.

    (a) In General.--Section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
(8 U.S.C. 1101) is amended by inserting after subsection (c) the 
following new subsection:
    ``(d) For purposes of section 301(a), a person born in the United 
States shall be considered as `subject to the jurisdiction of the 
United States' if--
            ``(1) the child was born in wedlock in the United States to 
        a parent either of whom is (A) a citizen or national of the 
        United States, or (B) an alien who is lawfully admitted for 
        permanent residence and maintains his or her residence (as 
        defined in subsection (a)(33)) in the United States; or
            ``(2) the child was born out of wedlock in the United 
        States to a mother who is (A) a citizen or national of the 
        United States, or (B) an alien who is lawfully admitted for 
        permanent residence and maintains her residence in the United 
        States.
For purposes of this subsection, a child is considered to be `born in 
wedlock' only if both parents are married to each other and parents are 
not considered to be married if such marriage is only a common law 
marriage.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 301 of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1401) 
is amended by inserting ``(as defined in section 101(d))'' after 
``subject to the jurisdiction thereof''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to aliens born on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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