An Immigrant President? It Could Happen

WASHINGTON — Since the founding of the United States, the office of president has carried a qualification not required for any other elected federal post. Under the Constitution, only a "natural born citizen" can be president.

Now, as Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger chases the governorship of the most populous state, the House and Senate are weighing proposals for a constitutional amendment that would allow a naturalized citizen to become president. But Schwarzenegger's candidacy is only a side issue in the debate.

The question turns on whether a decision by the framers of the Constitution more than 200 years ago remains relevant in today's more inclusive America, one in which the foreign-born population is at an all-time high.

Conservatives such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and liberals such as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) favor opening the presidency to immigrants. Hatch's bill would allow people who have been citizens at least 20 years to hold the office, while Frank is supporting a House bill with a 35-year citizenship requirement.

"I think it's a mistake to have that in the Constitution," Frank said of the current limitation. "It's reflective of a double standard that somehow immigrants aren't fully equal with people born here."

The amendment would have to be approved by a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures.

Chances are slim that either version would pass in the near future, but a native-born constituency of supporters is emerging from the families of thousands of youngsters adopted from overseas into American families.

First-grader Jonah Yinger of Syracuse, N.Y., who was born in Vietnam and adopted by his parents when he was an infant, is among those children.

Jonah's father, John Yinger, launched a campaign in 1998 to amend the Constitution, complete with an Internet Web page.

"Jonah has lived in the United States nearly all his life," said Yinger, a Syracuse University economist. "But he is going to be treated differently than all other citizens. When he gets to a class on the Constitution, he is constantly going to have to hear that he can't run for president, while every other kid can."

Children were also on the mind of Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) when he introduced the House amendment earlier this year. Snyder said he was thinking of his niece Sara Doty, a teenager living in Oregon. Sara was born in South Korea and adopted at age 10 months by Snyder's sister.