U.S. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP CASE

On Monday, March 22, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear the arguments in Ruben Flores-Villar v. United States. At the crux of the argument is the disparate treatment given to children of U.S. citizen mothers as opposed to U.S. citizen fathers. Under the current law, children born abroad to a U.S. citizen mother have an easier time attaining U.S. citizenship as opposed to children born abroad to a U.S. citizen father. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the U.S. immigration laws in this area create a gender bias. In the instant case, Ruben Flores-Villar was born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican mother and a U.S. citizen father. Mr. Flores-Villar applied for U.S. citizenship in 2006 in an effort to fight off criminal charges resulting in a deportation order. Mr. Aguilar argued that his biological relationship to his U.S. citizen father granted him U.S. citizenship. The courts said that Mr. Flores’s father did not meet the requisite residency requirement needed under the law. The area of birth-right citizenship has always been a contested area of law. For example, under the current law any child born on U.S. soil is considered a U.S. citizen. Even if the child was born to undocumented parents and this has raised many issues in the ever present immigration debate. Hopefully this case will lead to clarification and uniformity in area of immigration law. The case will be heard before the Supreme Court in Spring, 2010.

For more information read the New York Times

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