‘Cruel, Unfair and Racist’: Black immigrants whose fathers are U.S. citizens push to overturn law that keeps them from obtaining citizenship

By Liz Vinson, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Enacted in 1940, the Guyer Rule prevented U.S.-citizen fathers, but not U.S.-citizen mothers, from passing their citizenship status to foreign-born, nonmarital children – in other words, children who were born “out of wedlock.” The rule disproportionately restricted how nonwhite parents could secure citizenship for their children – and for decades was maintained for just that reason….

Kelvin Silva – one of many Black men held at Stewart – is facing deportation because of an archaic and racially inequitable law known as the Guyer Rule that prevented him from becoming a U.S. citizen as a child, even though his father was a naturalized U.S. citizen. Were it not for the Guyer Rule, Silva – who was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in the United States – would have automatically gained citizenship when he was just 11 years old….

The Southern Poverty Law Center and its co-counsel are representing Silva in a federal court challenge that claims the Guyer Rule is unconstitutional because it discriminates based on gender and race….

Although Black immigrants were eligible for naturalization starting in 1870, historical and legislative records show that lawmakers nevertheless worked to limit the number of people of color who could become U.S. citizens. Across decades when white supremacy, segregation and eugenics undergirded the entire American legal system, administrators and legislators accomplished this goal in a variety of ways, including literacy tests, a racially discriminatory quota system and immigration preference categories that prioritized the “marital” family over other forms of familial arrangement, notably at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in most U.S. states.

In treating marriage as a prerequisite for U.S.-citizen fathers, but not U.S.-citizen mothers, to pass their citizenship status on to their foreign-born children, lawmakers were relying on the outdated stereotype that mothers have closer bonds with their nonmarital children than fathers do….

Congress repealed and replaced the discriminatory Guyer Rule in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. But the new law did not apply to children over 18. That means Silva and many other similarly situated immigrants who were prevented from becoming U.S. citizens under the Guyer Rule continue to suffer its discriminatory effects simply because of the year they were born. Had Silva been born on or after Feb. 27, 1983, he would have been under 18 when the 2000 law was passed and thus his citizenship would not be in question.

“Fairness is all I’m asking for,” said Silva, 44. “This is my country – the only country I know.”

Read the full article here to learn the stories of other Black men being held for deportation.

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