Article I, Section 8, Clause 4:

[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; . . .

In a 1913 case, Luria v. United States, a naturalized U.S. citizen, George Luria, challenged a court order setting aside, as fraudulently and illegally procured, his certificate of citizenship under the denaturalization provisions of the 1906 Act.1 The U.S. Government claimed that Luria, who was born in Russia, had established permanent residence in South Africa shortly after obtaining his certificate of citizenship in the United States and thus lacked the intention of becoming a permanent U.S. citizen when he naturalized.2 Luria argued that, although the Naturalization Act of 1906 authorized the denaturalization of someone who established a permanent residence in a foreign country, this restriction should not have applied to him because he had naturalized under a prior law that did not require applicants to produce a declaration of their intention to reside in the United States.3

The Supreme Court disagreed, explaining that, before 1906, naturalization laws still imposed certain duties and obligations on the applicant, such as a declaration of intention to become a U.S. citizen and renounce any allegiance to a foreign government, and proof that the applicant had resided in the United States for at least five years at the time of the application.4 The Court determined that these prior laws “clearly implied” that they were not intended to apply to someone “whose purpose was to reside permanently in a foreign country, and to use his naturalization as a shield against the imposition of duties there, while by his absence he was avoiding his duties here.” 5

Luria also challenged the 1906 Act’s denaturalization provision itself, arguing that it violated his right to due process by characterizing his permanent residence in a foreign country within five years of becoming a U.S. citizen as “prima facie evidence” of a lack of intention to become a permanent U.S. citizen.6 The Court rejected Luria’s argument, reasoning that the 1906 Act “goes no farther than to establish a rebuttable presumption which the possessor of the certificate is free to overcome” with evidence of his intention to reside permanently in the United States.7 Recognizing a legislature’s power to craft rules of evidence in civil and criminal cases, the Court determined that the rebuttable presumption created by the 1906 Act was reasonable and did not violate Luria’s right to due process.8

The Court also rejected Luria’s contention that the 1906 Act violated his right to equal protection by discriminating between the rights of naturalized U.S. citizens, who were subject to the foreign residence restriction, and native-born U.S. citizens, who were not subject to such restriction.9 The Court explained that the Act “does not in anywise affect or disturb rights acquired through lawful naturalization, but only provides for the orderly cancellation, after full notice and hearing, of certificates of naturalization which have been procured fraudulently or illegally. It does not make any act fraudulent or illegal that was honest and legal when done, imposes no penalties, and at most provides for the annulment, by appropriate judicial proceedings, of merely colorable letters of citizenship, to which their possessors never were lawfully entitled.” 10 The Court thus upheld Luria’s order of denaturalization.11

In the following decades, federal immigration laws concerning denaturalization remained largely unchanged from the 1906 Act.12 In 1952, however, the INA established a new framework governing denaturalization. The INA authorized the “revoking and setting aside” of a naturalization certificate that had been “procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” 13 The INA also listed certain categories of naturalized citizens who would be considered to have obtained citizenship through “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,” including a person who returned to his or her native country or any other foreign country within five years of naturalization, and established permanent residence in that country.14

, § 104(b), 108 Stat. 4305, 4308. The INA further provided that any person who claimed U.S. citizenship through the naturalization of a parent or spouse would be deemed to lose citizenship if there was a revocation of the parent’s or spouse’s citizenship because “the order and certificate of naturalization were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” 15

Footnotes

1

231 U.S. 9, 17 (1913).

2

Id. at 17–18.

3

Id. at 21–22.

4

Id.

5

Id. at 23–24.

6

Id. at 25.

7

Id.

8

Id. at 24–27.

9

Id.

10

Id. at 24 (citing Johannessen v. United States, 225 U.S. 227 (1912)).

11

See also Johannessen, 225 U.S. at 241–43 (upholding denaturalization of U.S. citizen who provided perjured testimony from witnesses that he had resided in the United States for at least five years); United States v. Ginsberg, 243 U.S. 472, 475 (1917) (upholding denaturalization of U.S. citizen who obtained citizenship based on “a manifest mistake by the judge” who adjudicated his petition); United States v. Ness, 245 U.S. 319, 327 (1917) (reversing dismissal of action to set aside U.S. citizen’s certificate of naturalization on the grounds that he “illegally procured” naturalization without providing certificate of arrival in the United States).

12

See e.g., Nationality Act of 1940, ch. 876, § 338(a), (b), 54 Stat. 1137, 1158–60 (authorizing proceedings against a naturalized citizen for “revoking and setting aside the order admitting such person to citizenship and canceling the certificate of naturalization on the ground of fraud or on the ground that such order and certificate of naturalization were illegally procured,” and creating presumption that naturalized citizen’s permanent residence in foreign country within five years after naturalization established “a lack of intention on the part of such person to become a permanent citizen of the United States at the time of filing such person’s petition” ). The Nationality Act of 1940, however, also provided that the revocation of a person’s citizenship would not result in the loss of citizenship to his wife or minor child unless “the revocation and setting aside of the order [admitting the person to citizenship] was the result of actual fraud.” Id. § 338(d).

13

See Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, Pub. L. No. 82-414, § 340(a), 66 Stat. 163, 260 (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a)). This provision was later amended to allow denaturalization proceedings where the order admitting the person to citizenship and the naturalization certificate “were illegally procured or were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” Act of Sept. 26, 1961, Pub. L. No. 87-301, § 18(a), 75 Stat. 650, 656 (emphasis added).

14

Immigration and Nationality Act § 340(a) (persons who within ten years following naturalization refused to testify as witnesses in any proceeding before a congressional committee concerning “subversive activities,” and had been convicted of contempt for such refusal), 340(c) (persons who within five years following naturalization became members of or affiliated with an organization, and such membership or affiliation would have barred them from naturalization), 340(d) (persons establishing a permanent residence in a foreign country) (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), (c)). Congress eventually repealed the permanent foreign residence provision. Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994, Pub. L. No.

103-416

, § 104(b), 108 Stat. 4305, 4308.

15

Immigration and Nationality Act § 340(f) (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1451(d)). The INA provided, however, that the revocation of a person’s citizenship under the Nationality Act of 1940 would not result in the loss of citizenship to that person’s wife or minor child unless “the revocation and setting aside of the order [admitting the person to citizenship] was the result of actual fraud.” Id. § 340(e).