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 ...
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).
Then why did the Founding Fathers ‘grandfather’ in all the people when the Constitution was written if this wasn’t important?
Don't you tell me what my husband had to or not had to do. You obviously had never served in the military and been stationed overseas with your family, otherwise you would know what I am saying the truth.
If they had been born in a civilian German hospital, that would have been a different story, but they were not. I am sure there are freepers who have served and been stationed overseas with their families and have children that were born overseas can confirm what I am saying and they also had to go to the American Consulate for the birth certificate.
What do you mean by open immigration?
In 1916, if you weren't crippled, a lunatic, diseased, a fugitive (which was pretty hard to check back then), of certain Asian ethniciy, and you paid a 50 cent tax they let you in and would naturalize you in fairly short order.
1924 is when we entered the era of any meaningful restrictions on immigration in the US (and then what wasn't repealed in 1965 stopped being enforced).
You said open. Then you listed restrictions. Sorry, I just was looking for clarifications (especially since your initial post to me started out with a snarky “I hope you realize”.
I don’t think I initially posted anything that warranted snarkiness.
I wish there were more info in the story, like why they were in Canada. Did they live there? Perhaps a visit, yes. And why did he himself question his citizenship in the forties? My sister was born in Germany because my Dad was in the military. She’s never questioned her citizenship. I just wonder if there’s something left out of this story. Maybe not, but it just seems thin on info.
Let's see ...
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Could it be that there wasn't a United States when they were born, and they didn't want to wait 35+ years for the first POTUS to be inaugurated? Grandfathering themselves was the obvious solution to an obvious logical problem.
You said the hospital was US territory for purposes of citizenship. I said it wasn't. You also said you had to the US consulate to get the birth certificate processed. I don't doubt that. But it was a mere formality not affecting the eligibility of your kids to serve as president. They were citizens by birth because they were born to American citizens (I presume).
If they had been born in a civilian German hospital, that would have been a different story
How so? In either case, they would have been born on German soil. You still would have needed to get documentation from a consular office, and it still would have been a formality not affecting your kids' natural born status.
How dare you put words in my mouth, that I never said . I never typed the the hospital was US territory for purposes of citizenship. Here is exactly what I typed in post #16
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. We had to travel to the US Consulate in Munich to get their US Birth certificate
You conveniently left out Army. If it had just been a hospital in Germany it would not have been in US territory. But it was a US Army hospital and that made it US Territory.
We did get my son and daughter registered with the US Embassy as required in order for them to receive a US birth certificate.
Also see post # 47 by SatinDoll
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.
Um, I believe citizenship is the subject of this thread. That hospital may have been under full physical possession and control of the US, but that does not make it US territory for the purposes of this discussion. If it did, then any German babies that may have been born there would be automatic 14th Amendment citizens. Since they are not, it follows that the hospital was not US territory!
Also, if it was US territory, then why was a US consulate involved? US consulates exist to provide State Department services on foreign soil (to US citizens abroad and foreigners wanting to visit or immigrate). I was born in Chicago. Chicago is US territory. My parents didn't need to visit a consulate to put my paperwork in order.
I posted the article *DOH*
You really have no clue, but since you never served it does not surprise me
This guy is seeking to get his driver’s license at the age of 90+ ?
God bless him.
Irrelevant. Same rules apply whether you are military stationed abroad or on business or just tourists. You drop 'em, you go to the embassy or consulate and register 'em. Otherwise, when they turn 95, they may be inconvenienced and have to get their senator's help with the paperwork.
But my real point is to mock the whacked out legal theories of you birfers, who claim they're ineligible because they were born abroad!
Posting is one thing. Comprehension of what one posts is another.
you are an idiot
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