Nguyen v. INS

Nguyen v INS

2001

Facts. 28 USC § 1409 governs US citizenship for a child born to citizen and non-citizen and parents are unmarried and the child is born outside of US and territories. There are different requirements for mother who is a citizen vs a father who is a citizen.

If the father is the citizen he has three options, a) legitimation; b) declaration of paternity under oath; c) or a court order of paternity. Mother does not have to do these things. The government interest is to ensure a biological parent-child relationship exists and to ensure the child and citizen parent have demonstrated opportunity or potential to develop not just a relationship that is recognized by law but also that has real, everyday ties that provide a connection between the two and between the child and the United States, since obviously a citizen will show how great America is to the kid.

 

Issue. Do the means of imposing additional requirements, by § 1049, upon an unwed citizen father that are not opposed to the same status mother substantially related to the government’s interest?

 

Held. Yes, there is no need to impose these upon the mother because she will obviously be there at birth. One can guarantee that she will be with the child and will have the chance to develop a meaningful relationship with him or her. Proof of motherhood is inherent in birth.

Petitioners argue that just because a woman gives birth to a baby doesn’t mean she’ll have a meaningful relationship with him or her.

An important note is that the level is scrutiny is lowered because immigration deals with national security and there is more deference to the other branches of government for that.