On October 26, 2011, I was part of a team of lawyers from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) that submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Pierre v. Holder, Dkt. No. 10-2131-ag (2d Cir.). There is an immigration law that permits a permanent resident child born out of wedlock to become a United States citizen, if the child’s mother becomes a United States citizen before the child’s eighteenth birthday.
The same immigration law does not have any means for a child born out of wedlock to become a United States citizen through his or her father. Mr. Pierre is challenging this immigration law as violating his right to due process because the law discriminates against children born out of wedlock who were raised by his or her father. AILA’s brief supports Mr. Pierre.