Week 3 – 2023: Out of Place #52Ancestors

How about instead of “out of place,” the “right place”?

Last week, I had the honor of attending the naturalization ceremony of a good friend. After a bit of a cluster when a 100+ people showed up in freezing weather and couldn’t get into the courthouse, the ceremony itself was great. Especially impressive were the courthouse and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USICS) personnel. To a person they were gracious and kind. The Naturalization Examiner who did a terrific job running the ceremony, explained in detail the new rights and responsibilities to these new citizens. I thought it especially interesting that he took great pains to explain who in their family were now permitted to join them in the U.S. (a matter-of-fact explanation of something now derisively referred to as “chain-migration”).[1]

These eighty-nine new citizens (from thirty-six countries) were given the oath by Senior Judge Julie A. Robinson. Appointed by George W. Busch in 2021, Judge Robinson is the first African-American judge for the District of Kansas (she was a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for seven years before her appointment).[2] An impressive speaker, her delight at being able to preside over this ceremony was obvious. She even attended the cookie and punch reception afterwards to pose with the new citizens for pictures. In her remarks, Judge Robinson noted how all citizens, including those like her ancestors who were brought to here involuntarily, shared a responsibility to be the best citizens they could in order to help make the county better for all. Her emphasis on love and kindness was most moving.

For the Oath of Citizenship, the new citizen declares, “I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen….” Of course, we lawyers in attendance with our friend were struck by that language. How does this square with the concept of “dual citizenship”? Unbeknownst to me, there is quite a bit of history behind this concept.

After years and years of cases dealing with citizenship issues, the 1967 landmark case of Afroyim v. Rusk held that the only way a U.S. citizen (either by birth or naturalization) could lose citizenship was by a separate voluntary renunciation.[3] Even though Afroyim doesn’t precisely deal with our question, the concept of dual citizenship, which previously had been opposed by the U.S. government, became more accepted.[4] During the Carter administration, the U.S. finally and fully abandoned it’s prohibition against dual citizenship following naturalization.[5] There are some countries that do not permit dual citizenship (such as China, Japan, Netherlands, etc.) and in that case, one would have to renounce his/her U.S. citizenship to become a citizen of those countries.[6]

While applicants for naturalization have taken some form of oath to support the Constitution since the first naturalization law in 1790, the language wasn’t standardized until 1929.[7] The antiquated-sounding oath our friend took was nearly identical to the one my second great-grandfather Christopher Götter took in 1863: “[I] doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty whatever, and particularly to the Grand Dude of Baden of whom he was heretofore a subject.”[8] When Christopher became a U.S. citizen, his Irish-born wife, Mary, automatically became a citizen. Remarkably, the reverse was not true (that is, an alien husband could not gain U.S. citizenship through his wife) until 1922.[9]

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[1] The Immigration and Nationality Ace of 1965 gave priority to immediate relatives, spouses, and children of U.S. citizens. Wikipedia.org, Immigration and Nationality Ace of 1965, 17:22, 19 January 2023.

[2] United States District Court, District of Kansas, “Senior Judge Julie A. Robinson,” (https://ksd.uscourts.gov/content/senior-judge-julie-robinson : accessed 21 January 2023).

[3] Afroyim v Rusk, 387 U.S. 254 (1967).

[4] Wikipedia.org, “Afroyim v. Rusk,” 04:39, 7 February 2022.

[5] Ibid.

[6] NNU Immigration, “Countries Allowing Dual Citizenship with USA,” 1 July 2021 (https://www.nnuimmigration.com/dual-citizenship-usa/ : accessed 24 January 2023).

[7] U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “History of the Oath of Allegiance,” (https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learn-about-citizenship/the-naturalization-interview-and-test/history-of-the-oath-of-allegiance : accessed 23 January 2023).

[8] Christopher Goetter, naturalization (1863), file 1042, Court of Common Pleas, Union County, New Jersey; digital image, "New Jersey, County Naturalization Records, 1749-1986," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9Q4-WHZC?cc=2057433&wc=M73B-LNG%3A351146401%2C351462801 : accessed 23 January 2023), Union > Petitions for naturalization and petition evidence 1857-1906 no 625-1059 > image 1565 of 1633; New Jersey Department of State, Division of Archives and Records Management; multiple counties in New Jersey.

[9] Okay, maybe not so remarkable. Marian L. Smith, “Women and Naturalization, c. 1802-1940,” Prologue Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer 1998); image copy, National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html : accessed 24 January 2023).