Same-Sex Couples Sue U.S. Government For Kids' Citizenship
By Leila Fadel, NPR | 01. 26. 2018
Aiden and Ethan Dvash-Banks share pretty much everything. The 16-month-old twins were born four minutes apart, from the same womb, to the same fathers and now they share the same toys in the living room of their Southern California home.
But there is one thing they don't share — Aiden was granted U.S. citizenship and Ethan is living in California on an expired tourist visa.
Why? The State Department says only one is the child of an American. One of the kids has the genetic material of his U.S. citizen father; the other, the genetic material from his other father, an Israeli citizen with a green card. Both boys were born in Canada.
The couple is now suing the State Department with the help of Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ-immigrant-rights organization. It's one of two lawsuits filed this week by married, same-sex couples who had children abroad. In each case one of the children was refused citizenship because he was genetically related to only the foreign parent.
Immigration Equality says it goes against the Immigration and Nationality Act that says...
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