CA1: District Court’s finding on derivative citizenship affirmed

Leal Santos v. Mukasey, No. 07-2110.  This is a derivative citizenship case with a long history.  It went from an IJ to the Third Circuit to the District Court in Massachusetts.  Under 8 U.S.C. § 1401(a), “derivative citizenship may be conferred upon a person born outside of the United States if the applicant has at least one parent who is a United States citizen, and the parent was present in the United States for at least ten years prior to the applicant's birth. At least five of those years must have been after the parent's fourteenth birthday.”  The District Court found that the mother hand not stayed long enough.  The First explains that while the government bears the burden in a removal proceeding, “evidence that the person in removal proceedings was born abroad meets that burden unless the person can prove, by a fair preponderance of the evidence, that he possesses derivative citizenship.”  Otherwise, the District Court is affirmed on the facts.