State Department Continues Fight to Strip Gay Couple's Two-Year-Old Son of Birthright Citizenship

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OUTRAGEOUS
State Department Continues Fight to Strip Gay Couple’s Two-Year-Old Son of Birthright Citizenship


https://www.thedailybeast.com/state-department-continues-fight-to-strip-gay-couples-two-year-old-son-of-birthright-citizenship

The State Department demanded that one of the couple’s twin sons have a DNA test to prove he’s the biological son of a U.S. citizen.




Scott Bixby

05.07.19 1:31 PM ET
Photos of Life by Ashli Shapiro via Immigration Equality

Ever since twins Aiden and Ethan Dvash-Banks were born in Toronto in September 2016, they have shared everything—the same button nose, the same swoopy haircut, the same pug/terrier mix London. But for years, the U.S. State Department has fought an escalating legal battle to ensure that they don’t share one important thing: American citizenship.

Although Aiden and Ethan’s fathers, Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks, have been married since 2010, only Andrew is an American citizen. While that would be enough for children in a heterosexual marriage to qualify for U.S. citizenship while born abroad, the State Department has held the Dvash-Bankses to a different standard, requiring the family to undergo DNA testing to establish that Aiden—but not Ethan—was the biological son of a U.S. citizen.


The boys’ parents sued, arguing in federal court that proving a biological connection between a child and a U.S. citizen parent isn’t required to extend birthright citizenship from a married parent to a child, and in February, the judge ruled in their favor.

“The basis for the State Department’s imposition of a biological requirement is its strained interpretation” of existing immigration law, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter wrote in a decision issued in February, dismissing the department’s attempts to institute a biological testing standard for the children of binational married couples “unilateral.”

But on Monday, the State Department appealed that decision, continuing a years-long bid to strip Ethan of his citizenship.......................

[grumpyduck]

1. What a friggin' waste of public money! n/t