Support the Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA)
Listen to the families affected, as they express how their lives would change with the passage of the Equal Citizenship for Children Act
The Issue:
In 1940, The Guyer Rule, a racially discriminatory law, prevented children born outside of marriage from deriving citizenship from their fathers, which disproportionately prevented Black immigrants from becoming U.S. citizens. Though Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act (CCA) in 2000, allowing both marital and nonmarital children to automatically derive U.S. citizenship from either of their custodial parents, it did not apply to those who had already turned 18 years of age by February 27, 2001.
The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would change this, taking into account the realities of modern families. Introduced in March by Alma Adams (NC-12) and Yvette D. Clark (NY-09) with 17 original co-sponsors, the ECCA would secure citizenship for thousands who were previously excluded from the CCA. It would prevent nearly-lifelong U.S. residents from being involuntarily transported to countries where they have no family or support despite having a U.S.-citizen parent. These deportations are devastating not only to individuals, but to families and whole communities in the U.S.
The ECCA would rectify an unjust omission and eliminate barriers by:
Granting citizenship to eligible individuals who turned 18 before February 27, 2001.
Ensuring that non-marital children may acquire citizenship through their custodial U.S.-citizen parent.
Allowing children conceived through assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as IVF, to obtain U.S. citizenship through either parent.
How to Help:
• Uplift the stories of people the ECCA would help on Social Media
• Fill out this Action Network form to send a letter to your representative.
List of ECCA endorsing organizations
Adoptee Rights Law Center
Adoptees United Inc.
African Communities Together (ACT)
Americans for Immigrant Justice
Asian American Advocacy Fund
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California
Asian Counseling and Referral Service
ASISTA Immigration Assistance
Ayuda
CASA
Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants
Central West Justice Center
El Refugio
Families for Freedom
Galeo Impact Fund
Georgia Human Rights Clinic
Immigrant Children Advocates' Relief Effort (ICARE)
Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Immigration Equality Action Fund
Immigration Hub
Just Neighbors
Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Malaya Movement USA
Migrant Equity Southeast
MN8
MomsRising/MamásConPoder
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
National Partnership for New Americans
New York Immigration Coalition
New Sanctuary Movement of Atlanta
Presente.org
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Southeast Asian Coalition (SEAC Village)
SPLC Action Fund
Sur Legal Collaborative
The Advocates for Human Rights
The Bronx Defenders
UndocuBlack Network
UnidosUS
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
Value our Families
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
“U.S. citizenship to me means being able to be a husband to my wife and a father to my kids. Because being able to be there for them and to make sure I put them on the right path is the most important thing to me.”
Damion Davis moved to the U.S. from Jamaica as a lawful permanent resident in 1989, when he was 11 years old. As a child, he lived in Staten Island, NY with his father, who naturalized to U.S. citizenship when Damion was 16. Damion now considers Pennsylvania, where everyone he loves lives, to be his home. Yet for nearly 4 years, ICE has been trying to deport him to Jamaica - even though his attorneys say he should have derived citizenship through his father long ago. For Damion, being separated from his wife and children and deported to a country he does not remember is a devastating possibility.
Today, when a child is admitted to the United States to live with a parent who naturalizes to U.S. citizenship, the child automatically becomes a citizen, too. But when Damion was growing up in New York, U.S. derivative citizenship laws created obstacles for children born outside of legal “wedlock” who had U.S. citizen fathers - even when the father had legal custody - excluding many who were otherwise eligible from becoming citizens. Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) now allows marital and nonmarital children to receive citizenship through either custodial parent, these reforms did not apply to children who had already turned 18 by the time the CCA took effect on February 27, 2001.
The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would close this gap by making provisions of the CCA retroactive, securing citizenship for thousands who did not receive citizenship through their fathers under the prior law, known as the Guyer Rule, because of their parents’ marital status. Many of these nearly-lifelong U.S. residents, now in their 40s and 50s, have multiple generations in their families who are U.S. citizens living in the United States, including parents, children, and grandchildren. Please keep families like Damion’s together and help end the Guyer Rule by asking your representative to pass the ECCA.
“It’s not fair for a person that has lived their whole life in a country . . . just to get kicked out, not to get a chance. They keep just breaking families apart.”
Kelvin Silva is a beloved father and grandfather who was deported to the Dominican Republic last year after immigrating to the U.S. as a child to live with his U.S.-citizen father in 1988. Although Kelvin experienced many hardships beginning from a young age, including his father’s death when he was just 17 years old, the tragic loss of his infant son, and time in jail for nonviolent drug offenses, he was determined to beat the odds. He earned his GED, completed a drug treatment program, and worked hard to build strong relationships with his children. It was not until ICE placed an immigration detainer on Kelvin in 2017, after he had turned his life around and was in his forties, that he discovered he was not a U.S. citizen - despite having a U.S. citizen parent.
If not for the antiquated Guyer Rule, which prevented fathers from passing their U.S. citizenship to immigrant children who were born “out of wedlock,” Kelvin would have automatically become a citizen through his father when he was a child. Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) changed the law to allow custodial fathers to transfer citizenship to their nonmarital children, the law was not made retroactive for people like Kelvin, who was already 18 when the CCA took effect on February 27, 2001. As a result, notwithstanding his rehabilitation, Kelvin was detained for 30 months in an abusive ICE detention center and deported to a country that had long since faded from his memory, where none of his close family members remain.
The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would end this cruel injustice by making provisions of the CCA retroactive. This would secure citizenship for people like Kelvin who have been ripped from the only country they know, despite immigrating to the U.S. as minor children of U.S. citizens, and who would be citizens themselves today if not for the Guyer Rule. Please help us right this historical wrong by asking your representative to pass the ECCA.
Advancing Justice-Atlanta represents Mr.Silva before the Eleventh Circuit.
“I should be a citizen today. I feel cheated here, because I’ve been in the U.S. all my life.”
Robert Lodge came to the U.S. to live with his father when he was 12 years old, after Robert’s mother could no longer take care of his complex medical needs. Until recently, Robert had always believed he was a citizen because his father was a citizen. He learned that wasn’t the case when ICE detained him for over two years at the notorious Stewart Detention Center, where he suffered from numerous health problems and profound isolation from his family and community. Now, he is fighting in federal court to stop his deportation. Having no family, support, or access to healthcare for his disabilities in Jamaica, he fears his deportation would effectively constitute a death sentence.
If not for the antiquated Guyer Rule, which discriminated against fathers like Robert’s by preventing them from passing citizenship to children who were born “out of wedlock,” Robert would be a citizen today, and he would not be facing deportation. Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) now allows fathers to transmit their citizenship status to nonmarital children who were born abroad, it was not made retroactive for children like Robert who were already 18 when the law took effect on February 27, 2001.
The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would help end this injustice by securing citizenship for thousands like Robert who would be citizens today if not for the discriminatory Guyer Rule. Please help stop Robert’s unjust deportation by asking your representative in Congress to pass the ECCA.
“Since coming to the U.S. as a child, my whole life has been in America. Me being deported affects my family every single day.”
Noel Henry is a devoted father of four who lived in the U.S. for over 30 years, spending his childhood in the full custody of his naturalized U.S.-citizen father. In 2017, Noel was charged with using a cell phone for drug-related activity after befriending the “wrong people,” a decision he now deeply regrets. Noel accepted a plea deal, planning to move forward with life after taking responsibility for his mistake. But instead of being released from jail a few months later as he had expected, Noel was instead transferred to an ICE prison in rural Texas, where he was confined for more than a year.
Believing he had derived U.S. citizenship through his father, Noel fought against his deportation. But the immigration judge ruled that Noel was not a citizen, notwithstanding his father’s citizenship. Under the law in effect when Noel’s father brought him to the U.S., which has since been repealed, an arcane policy known as the Guyer Rule prevented U.S.-citizen fathers from unilaterally passing their citizenship status to immigrant children who were born “out of wedlock.” Now deported to Jamaica, Noel struggles daily to cope with the nightmare of being unexpectedly and permanently ripped away from his life and his entire family in the U.S.
The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would end this injustice by making provisions of the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 retroactive, thus securing citizenship for eligible individuals who turned 18 on or before February 27, 2001. It would prevent people like Noel from being cruelly torn away from the only country they know, despite having immigrated to the U.S. as minor children of U.S. citizens. Please help by asking your representative to pass the ECCA.
“My hope is that those with the power to change this unjust situation will seek to understand what we are going through as American families, and that it impacts more than the person that this country has deported. There is a ripple effect.”
When ICE deported Eboni Green’s fiancé Noel in 2021, their lives together were placed on hold. “It feels like we are at a standstill,” she says. “His deportation put a strain on our relationship and our finances.”
Today, Eboni works between 74 and 80 hours a week at three different jobs in the medical field to financially support two households: one in the U.S. and one in Jamaica. Because of the distance, she and Noel rely on daily phone calls to maintain their relationship, often using FaceTime to share moments the other would appreciate, eat a meal together, or discuss the future. While Eboni tries to be a supportive partner, she often feels there is little she can do about the challenges her fiancé faces in Jamaica as a U.S. deportee, including barriers to employment and problems accessing healthcare and public services. At times, depression has isolated her from friends and family.
“The difficulties Noel is going through are affecting all of his kids, and my family as well,” Eboni explains. “If Noel could be here to spend time with his children and be a grandfather to his grandchildren, the family could move forward. Instead, there is all of this missed time.”
Noel would not have been deported if not for the Guyer Rule, an arcane law that prevented children who were born “out of wedlock” outside of the U.S. from acquiring U.S. citizenship through their fathers. Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) enacted reforms, the CCA was not made retroactive for those who were already 18 on February 27, 2001. The Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would solve this by expanding the CCA’s reforms to thousands of nearly-lifelong U.S. residents like Noel who were unjustly excluded from U.S. citizenship under the discriminatory Guyer Rule. You can help reunite families like Eboni and Noel’s by asking your representative to pass the ECCA today.
“For the longest time I believed I was a citizen and had derived citizenship from my father. I never had reason to question that.”
Derrick Roberts faces deportation to Saint Lucia after immigrating to the U.S. to live with his naturalized citizen father when he was 9 years old. For most of his life, Derrick never questioned his citizenship status. For over thirty years, he has lived and worked in the U.S., always assuming he was a citizen because his father was a citizen. But because of the Guyer Rule, he now faces separation from his daughter and deportation to a country he does not know.
Originating from a Civil-War era Maryland court opinion that the mixed-race children of an American father had no claim to U.S citizenship because they were born “out of wedlock,” the Guyer Rule prevented U.S. citizen fathers from passing their citizenship status to foreign-born, nonmarital children. This archaic law is based on outdated stereotypes, has a racially disproportionate impact, and should have no place in modern law. Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) did away with the Guyer Rule in the context of citizenship transmission following from a parent’s naturalization, it did not do so retroactively.
Passing the Equal Citizenship for Children Act would secure citizenship for thousands of people like Derrick who face being ripped away from their families, despite having immigrated to the U.S. as children to live with their U.S. citizen parent. Whether a person’s parents were married to each other should not affect what rights they have or where they can live. You can help by asking your representative to pass the ECCA.
“You’re not just punishing me. You’re punishing my family, my son. They should have made [the Child Citizenship Act] retroactive.”
Omar Dale moved to the U.S. in 1981, at the age of one. When Omar was a child, his father became a U.S. citizen. But in 2019, Omar was deported to Jamaica, separated from all of his family and the life he has known, despite having a naturalized father and having lived in the U.S. for all of his living memory. Now, he struggles to build a life in Jamaica with the stigmas of deportation and the mental anguish of family separation.
Instead of being exiled and ripped away from his family, Omar would be a U.S. citizen today if not for the Guyer Rule, which prevented U.S. citizen fathers from passing their citizenship status to immigrant children who were born “out of wedlock.” Although the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) now allows fathers to transmit their citizenship status to nonmarital children who were born abroad, it was not made retroactive for children like Omar who were already 18 when the CCA took effect on February 27, 2001.
Passing the Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would secure citizenship for people like Omar who have been cruelly deported from the U.S., despite having lived in the U.S. since he was an infant and having a U.S.-citizen father. You can help end this cruel injustice by asking your representative to help pass the ECCA.
Balbino Tavarez Rivas was deported to the Dominican Republic in 2000.
Balbino Tavarez Rivas is a husband and father who immigrated to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident when he was 9 years old to live with his father, who naturalized to U.S. citizenship when Balbino was 12. Under today’s law, children like Balbino automatically receive citizenship when their custodial parent naturalizes and the child is living in the United States. But under the now-repealed law that was in effect when Balbino was a child, an arcane policy known as the Guyer Rule prevented U.S. citizen fathers from unilaterally passing their citizenship status to immigrant children who were born “out of wedlock.”
After 32 years of building his life in the U.S., Balbino was deported to the Dominican Republic in 2000, separating him from his wife and two young children. Despite the distance, he has worked hard over the years to maintain a strong and loving relationship with his wife, children, and recent grandchildren—all of whom live in the U.S. Now approaching his sixties, Balbino describes the experience of deportation as a “life sentence,” a banishment from the country where he grew up, where all his family lives, and which he still considers home.
Passing the Equal Citizenship for Children Act (ECCA) would right a historical wrong by ending the cruel and permanent exile of people like Balbino, who were ripped away from their families despite the fact that under today’s law, they would have automatically received citizenship through their naturalized citizen parent. Please help us end these tragic family separations by asking your representative to support the ECCA.