Court favors stateless kids

At least 300 “stateless” children in the CNMI may soon get their U.S. citizenship after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit remanded the children’s case to the U.S. District Court, directing it to reverse its earlier ruling against the group.

Ninth Circuit Judge John T. Noonan, in his decision issued July 1, 2004, stipulated that both under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S.-CNMI Covenant Sections 301 and 501 state that provisions are applicable within the Northern Mariana Islands as if the CNMI is one of the several states.

“Surely, the government suggests, this specific section, which became effective only in 1986, was superfluous if Section 501 of the Covenant had already in 1978 conferred citizenship on those born in the CNMI,” said Noonan.

The decision would impact children born between Jan. 9 1978 and Nov. 3, 1986. They may soon get their U.S. citizenship once the U.S. District Court issues its reversal on an earlier decision.

The ruling, however, would leave children born between Jan. 1, 1974 and Jan. 8, 1978—more than 20 individuals—still stateless.

According to Noonan, Section 501 of the Covenant evidently makes all of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment applicable to the CNMI, which is regarded as one of several states.

“The government opposes this straightforward reading. First, the government says that the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 only applies of its own force to persons who are actually born in the United States. But the government abandons this argument by admitting that Congress has the power to confer citizenship on persons born in territories, as Congress has done in various times to persons born in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico,” said Noonan.

He added that obviously, it is not the Constitution alone but the act of Congress applying Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment that makes the “stateless children” citizens of the United States.

“How could the CNMI be treated as a State without being treated as being in the United States? No state governed by the Constitution of the United States exists in a realm outside the realm comprehend by the United States. The government’s effort to distinguish one of the several states from a state within the United States depends on the gossamer reasoning that common sense must blow away. For the reason stated, the judgment of the district court is reversed and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion,” Noonan said.

The appellants in the case, Jacinto A. Sabangan Jr. and Esther Hae Jin Sohn, who were earlier denied U.S. passports by the State Department, along with 27 more stateless children, had appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit in May this year.

Lawyer Reynaldo O. Yana, who has been handling the children’s case, said that, if the decision is upheld by the U.S. District Court, all children born between Jan. 9 1978 and Nov. 3, 1986 would automatically become U.S. citizens even without congressional decision.

However, several stateless children between 1974 and 1976—prior to the Covenant—would remain stateless.

“The governor should keep it going so that all other stateless children would become U.S. citizens through congressional approval. I hope these kids would get their U.S. passports right away,” Yana said in an interview Saturday.

The case began in 2002 after the State Department rejected Sabangan and Sohn’s application for U.S. passports in June 1999. The two lodged suit against State Secretary Colin Powell on Sept. 5. But on July 2003, the District Court dismissed their complaint for failure to state their claim and a judgment was entered against them consecutively.

The Saipan Tribune tried to obtain comments from some of the “stateless children” but calls made to some were not immediately returned.