[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 166 (Tuesday, October 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCTION OF THE AMERASIAN PATERNITY RECOGNITION ACT

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                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 30, 2007

  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, our immigration law has 
long recognized that children born outside our country to an American 
father and a foreign national mother are U.S. citizens.
  Unfortunately, there remains a group of forgotten sons and daughters 
who, despite being born to American fathers, have been unfairly denied 
U.S. citizenship. These are the offspring of American servicemen and 
Asian women during the Vietnam and Korean Wars whose fathers did not 
personally take the steps of acknowledging paternity necessary to make 
their offspring citizens. But, the American government did that for 
them by acknowledging that their fathers were American citizens.
  Many of these individuals have lived through devastation during war, 
have been mistreated by their governments because of their mixed race, 
and many now live in the United States, but only as legal permanent 
residents.
  There is no doubt that Amerasians are the sons and daughters of 
American fathers. Our American government 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 am introducing the 
Amerasian Paternity Recognition Act, along with bipartisan cosponsors, 
to ensure that Amerasians are accorded U.S. citizenship just like the 
offspring of other American fathers are.
  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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