The Equal Citizenship for Children Act would amend current law so that those who were or are under 18 years of age and residing in the United States in the legal custody of a US citizen parent (whether adoptive or biological and including naturalized US citizens) would automatically acquire US citizenship, retroactive to those born after 12:00pm EST on January 9, 1941. The person, while under the age of 18, must also have been residing in the United States as a legal permanent resident (i.e., possessed a green card) or had a “pending application to adjust status to lawful permanent resident.”

HR1386, introduced by Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY-09) and Rep. Alma Adams (NC-12), is intended to repeal the so-called “Guyer Rule,” a more than century old legal doctrine used to deny US citizenship to children born abroad to US citizen fathers—disproportionately Black fathers—the key provision in the bill provides retroactive citizenship to 1941 for those impacted by the rule. This would, in addition, assure US citizenship for intercountry adoptees so long as they had met the requirements of the Act while under the age of 18. Presumably, this would include previously deported adoptees (though this may be complicated and needs more analysis). It would not, however, apply to intercountry adoptees or others who arrived in the United States on a non-immigrant visa (e.g., a tourist/visitor visa) and who did not obtain a green card while under the age of 18. The act also dispenses with a requirement of physical custody of the child with their US citizen parent(s), and clarifies the definition of a child to include 1) “the nonmarital child of a legal custodian citizen father” and 2) the child of a US citizen parent if the parent-child relationship is recognized under US or foreign parentage laws.

The bill currently has multiple Democratic sponsors/co-sponsors in the House, and has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).