[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 21, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2104]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  AMERASIAN NATURALIZATION ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 21, 2003

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, in the 106th Congress, we passed the Child 
Citizenship Act to automatically confer U.S. citizenship on foreign 
born children adopted by U.S. citizens. Our immigration law has also 
long recognized that children born outside our country to an American 
father and a foreign national mother are citizens as long as their 
fathers take the steps necessary to achieve their child's citizenship.
  Unfortunately, there remains a group of forgotten sons and daughters 
who, despite being born to American fathers, cannot take advantage of 
the Child Citizenship Act or other existing provisions of law.
  These are children born in Vietnam to American servicemen and 
Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War. They have lived through 
devastation during the Vietnam War, have been mistreated by the 
Vietnamese government because of their mixed race, and many now live in 
the United States, but only as legal permanent residents.
  There is no doubt that they are the sons and daughters of American 
fathers. We already made that determination when we admitted them to 
the United States as legal permanent residents.
  To correct this unfair inequality in our law, I have introduced the 
Amerasian Naturalization Act of 2003 to ensure that Amerasians are 
accorded U.S. citizenship just like the offspring of other American 
fathers are.
  I hope this Congress will act swiftly and pass the Amerasian 
Naturalization Act. It is time for us to finally close a chapter in our 
history that has too long denied Amerasians the opportunity to become 
citizens and be recognized as the Americans that they are.

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