Congress passed a law making the PCZ a US territory. Persons born in a US territory are considered to be born on US soil. Now there are different kinds of US territories but the PCZ was the type of territory that was considered US soil.
Regardless, he would have failed the Born on U.S. Soil requirement of the NBC test whether he were born on a U.S. military base, born in the PCZ, or otherwise.
False, as a matter of law.
Congress passed a law making the PCZ a US territory.
False, as a matter of fact.
Persons born in a US territory are considered to be born on US soil.
If born in unincorporated territory, such birth does not confer citizenship. For example, birth in American Samoa makes one a national but not a citizen.
Now there are different kinds of US territories but the PCZ was the type of territory that was considered US soil.
False as a matter of fact. The type of territory which confers citizenship is an incorporated territory. The Canal Zone was not a U.S. territory at all, but was sovereign territory of Panama.
Convention Between the United States and the Republic of Panama (1904)
Article IIIThe Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights, power and authority within the zone mentioned and described in Article II of this agreement, and within the limits of all auxiliary lands and waters mentioned and described in said Article II which the United States would possess and exercise, if it were the sovereign of the territory within which said lands and waters are located to the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, power or authority.
Panama granted the United States power to exercise jurisdiction within the Zone AS IF it were the sovereign. Panama was the sovereign, the United States was not.
The Canal Zone was not sovereign territory of the United States pursuant to the treaty.
Congresional Report 1303 of July 26, 1937 addresses the problems regarding births in the Canal Zone due to a poorly worded law then in effect (and at the time of the birth of John McCain). Had John McCain been born in the hospital about 100 yards outside the Naval Air Station, Coco Solo, he would have been born outside the territory and outside the jurisdiction of the United States and had a claim to U.S. citizenship via two U.S. citizen parents pursuant to Federal law. That was the only hospital then in existence for miles around. The Hospital on base was not commissioned until 1942.
https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/files/hr_751303.pdf
75th Congress, 1st SessionReport No. 1303
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS BORN IN THE CANAL ZONE OR REPUBLIC OF PANAMA
July 26, 1937.—Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed
Mr. Schulte, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 2416]
The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2416) relating to the citizenship of certain classes of persons born in the Canal Zone or the Republic of Panama, having considered the same, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of the bill is to declare and establish the citizenship of the children of American citizens, and their children, who are employees of the United States, or the Panama Railroad Co., a Government-owned instrumentality, born either in the Canal Zone proper, or in the Republic of Panama and to confer upon this class of Americans the benefits of American citizenship, the same as though they had been born in the United States.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The necessity for this legislation is apparent because the citizenship of persons born in the Canal Zone of American parents, has never been defined either by Constitution, treaty, or congressional enactment. This bill would definitely establish the certain classes entitled to citizenship.
The homes of many of the employees of the Government are located adjacent to the Canal Zone, but on the territory of the Republic of Panama. The hospitals managed by Americans under officers of the United States Army, and where the children of employees are born are located on territory of the Republic of Panama. Even children born within the limits of the Zone which is under the jurisdiction of the United States are not citizens.
2 CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS
These children referred to born in Panama do not come within the statutes on citizenship as they only provide for children born outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States.
The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution provides that children born of parents residing within the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.
Children of American parents in Canal Zone are not outside the jurisdiction of the United States, neither are they within the limits of the United States.
The effective date in the bill of February 26, 1904, is because that is the date when the agreement between the Republic of Panama and the United States with reference to construction and jurisdiction of the Canal Zone became effective.
The beneficiaries under the bill are the children of American employees, under Civil Service or serving in the United States Army, who owe allegiance to the United States and are citizens in every sense except as a matter of law.
The proposed legislation is entirely different from legislation that would confer citizenship on residents of territories of the United States of different blood. The bill if enacted would not confer citizenship on any alien employee or the children of such alien employee, even though such alien children were born within the limits of the Canal Zone.
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