STATE OF NEW JERSEY
219th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
Assemblywoman CAROL A. MURPHY
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Calls on federal government to recognize children of certain LGBTQ parents as United States citizens.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Assembly Resolution calling on the federal government to recognize the children of certain LGBTQ parents as United States citizens.
Whereas, For years, under multiple presidents, the Department of State has ignored key federal court rulings that provide guidance on how the United States should grant citizenship to children who are born abroad to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, or queer (LGBTQ) Americans; and
Whereas, The Department of State has followed an outdated interpretation of the law, and an outdated notion of parenthood, under which it requires a biological tie between the United States citizen parent and the child; and
Whereas, The Department of State has followed this interpretation despite two court rulings by the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, one in 2000 and one in 2005, which made clear that the “Immigration and Nationality Act,” on which the department’s policy is based, does not require a blood relationship to pass along United States citizenship to children born outside of this country; and
Whereas, The consequence of the dichotomy between Department of State policy and court rulings is that American parents can have one child the government recognizes as a citizen and another child the government does not recognize as a citizen; and
Whereas, There are currently two cases before the courts (Davash-Banks v. U.S. Department of State, and Blixt v. U.S. Department of State) involving married same-sex couples, in which one is American and the other is not, who used assistive reproductive technology to have children, and one child was granted citizenship and the other child was not, based on DNA testing; and
Whereas, The Department of State is making its decisions based on an internal policy that appears to require a biological or blood relationship between a child and a parent in order for the parent to pass along United States citizenship when the child is born abroad, despite court rulings that hold that it is the reality of being a parent, not a biological tie, that conveys citizenship to one’s newborn baby; and
Whereas, Updating the Department of State’s policy could be accomplished without Congress changing the law simply by following the rulings of earlier court cases so that LGBTQ Americans have the same ability to pass on their citizenship to their children as do straight Americans; and
Whereas, It is fitting and proper for this House to call on the federal government to recognize the children of certain LGBTQ parents as United States citizens; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House calls on the federal government to recognize the children of certain LGBTQ parents as United States citizens.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President of the United States and the Secretary of the federal Department of State.
STATEMENT
This Assembly Resolution calls on the federal government to recognize the children of certain LGBTQ parents as United States citizens.