Actually he attributes the remark to the US (“naah, they’re Cubans”).
Does Cuba grant citizenship by place of birth? As an American, I always thought everybody did it, then thought everybody should do it, then discovered that the U.S. needed a constitutional amendment to do it and it wasn’t done until after the Civil War and that it was done as a direct response to the studpidity of the Supreme Court in the “Dred Scott” decision.
The list of countries that don’t do it appears long and may be in the majority.
So, does Cuba grant citizenship by place of birth and how do we know? Are those Haitians still enjoying Cuba?
Citizenship based on place of birth is known as jus soli and is based in English common law. It the case of the United States, is made explicit in Amendment XIV
This site has a good overview of the U.S. rules. In general, since the 1940s or 1950s, people born in American possessions are U.S. citizens, but there are some exceptions. Children born to foreign diplomats here aren’t generally citizens, and
Not all countries follow jus soli (which is most common in English-speaking countries), but use the concept of jus sanguinis instead (citizenship by blood). The U.S. uses both, so that a child born overseas to American parents is a U.S. citizen. The U.S. and most other countries also permit citizenship by naturalization.
I don’t know what rules Cuba and Haiti use. I suspect the children born to Haitian refugees at Gitmo would be considered Haitian citizens, and not Cuban (despite what Cecil said.) It is also possible they are stateless persons.
Okay, so here’s the scoop. I have two sisters. One is a year older than me, and one is a year younger than me. They were both born in Japan, on a Naval Air Station (Iwakuni). I was born in Southern California.
My citizenship would never be in question. But what about my sisters? Are they Japanese nationals? Or US citizens? My dad is a native-born US citizen, but my mom was a Japanese citizen at the time my sisters were born (she has since become a naturalized US citizen).
They’ve never had to “apply” for citizenship, or fill out any paperwork. Does everyone just assume they’re US citizens and never ask? We’ve all traveled back and forth from Japan over the years, and it never seemed to come up. Or do you only need ONE parent to be a US citzen when you’re born overseas to be able to claim US citizenship by jus sanguinis (citizenship by blood)?
biffnox, my family is in a similar situation. I’m an American citizen, residing in Norway; my husband is a Norwegian citizen. We have two sons, who are dual citizens. A child born outside the US to one American citizen parent automatically becomes an American citizen if that parent has resided in the US for at least five years, at least two of them after the age of 15. (I might be a bit off on the residency requirement but it’s something similar anyway.) In other words, if your dad lived in the US until he joined the Navy, then your sisters are US citizens, no questions. Whether they are also Japanese citizens or not depends on Japanese law. In our case, since we parental units are married, our sons automatically got Norwegian citizenship through their father. It’s a bit more complicated when the parents aren’t married.
Note that you don’t have to apply for citizenship for an American child born abroad, since the child gets his/her citizenship automatically at birth. What you should do, however, is to contact the nearest US consulate/embassy to make sure the birth is properly registered. Then there can be no doubt of your intentions. I would think that if the US citizen parent is stationed abroad in the US Armed Forces, the usual military bureaucracy would take care of registering the birth.
U.S. military personnel having babies on military bases are automatically U.S. citizens. Regardless of the nationality of your mother, if your father was a citizen then you and your sisters are.
The deal with the Haitians was that they were non-U.S. citizens being housed at a military base, thus the question of the citizenship of their children. Cases have been made for children born to refugees being housed on U.S. soil (Florida) even though the refugees are not citizens and are not necessarily being granted admission, but are being held before being returned or whatnot. The kids have been ruled to be U.S. citizens because they are on U.S. soil. Thus the question of whether Gitmo counts as U.S. soil.
Legally, it isn’t, for INS purposes (8USC includes the explicit breakdown of what is “US Soil” for such cases). Occupation or even running the place does not constitute annexation, you need a duly ratified treaty or an Act of Congress for that.
The Cuban Constitution provides for citizenship by birthplace, though it explicitly exempts the children of foreigners in the service of their country. Plus, it leaves it up to statute to determine the situation involving persons “transiently” in Cuban territory. I believe in those cases the law exempts anyone illegally in Cuban territory.
Also, the constitutions of both countries, circa 1990, explicitly disallowed dual citizenship (this has been relaxed a little recently), so the Haitians could not even be eligible for Cuban citizenship unless willing to renounce their own.