Citizenship

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents - helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn "amnesty" into a pejorative. Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws.

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents - helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn "amnesty" into a pejorative. Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws.

The conductor Daniel Barenboim, already a contentious figure among fellow Israelis for championing Palestinians' rights and the works of Hitler's favorite composer, has accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship. Barenboim was given citizenship a year ago, but the move didn't become public until this past weekend, when a Palestinian lawmaker mentioned it after Barenboim held a performance in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Argentine-born conductor is the first Israeli to be granted citizenship by the Palestinian Authority.

WASHINGTON - Few regions will absorb the impact of future immigration reforms more than Los Angeles County, home to an estimated 1.1 million people in the country illegally, one-tenth of the nation's total. As the Senate Judiciary Committee began debating the bipartisan immigration bill last week, county officials voiced concerns that local taxpayers will be "left holding the bag" to pay for the brunt of healthcare and other services for multitudes of immigrants who apply for citizenship.

Attorney Kwang Man "John" Lee, authorities say, was a man who could make things happen - for a price. For a pound of marijuana and $44,000, the Koreatown attorney allegedly said, he could get an immigrant client a U.S. citizenship. "Price is OK for the risk," Lee told an associate, according to federal authorities. The silver-Corvette-driving attorney, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service agent, allegedly had associates at various stages of the immigration process willing to take bribes and provide favors for his clients.

1776: Declaration of Independence assails King George III for preventing colonies from naturalizing new settlers. 1790: Naturalization reserved for "free white person[s]" with at last two years residence. 1802: Jeffersonian Republicans repeal 14-year residency mandate breifly imposed by rival Federalists. 1848: Treaty ending U.S.-Mexico War guarantees citizenship to Mexican subjects in new territories, including California.

Last week, following the attempted bombing in Times Square, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) proposed that those aiding foreign terrorist activity should be stripped of their citizenship. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly agreed, with a few reservations, that the idea had merits. On Sunday, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said on morning news shows that Congress should consider legislation that would allow questioning of terrorism suspects without warning them of their right to remain silent, as required by the Supreme Court in Miranda vs. Arizona.

For Hong Kong residents desperate to flee before China takes over in 1997, the Federal Republic of Corterra sounded perfect. The tiny Pacific island nation was described as lying between Tahiti and Hawaii, with 80,000 citizens who enjoy democratic government, a British-style legal system and no income tax. Best of all, a newspaper ad here boasted, passports are bargain-priced at only $16,000. Three local businessmen quickly paid the $5,000 application fee. Then they discovered the catch.

Congratulations to all the newly sworn-in Americans! I, too, could have become an American citizen this June. It would have allowed me to accept the Naval Academy's offer of an appointment to prepare me as an officer of the U.S. Navy. My father had passed his test/interview on June 5. As a minor child, my U.S. citizenship was riding on that of my father's. There was a July 2 deadline set by the academy for me to meet the citizenship requirement. The INS had scheduled five swearing-in days between June 19-28.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmannis downplaying reports that she and her family recently became Swiss citizens, saying she has technically enjoyed dual citizenship since she married her husband in 1978. Bachmann's husband Marcus is eligible for Swiss citizenship because his parents are Swiss immigrants, but he only recently registered with the Swiss government, Politico reported earlier this week. Michele Bachmann and her three youngest children became Swiss citizens on March 19, according to the Politico report.

Attorney Kwang Man "John" Lee, authorities say, was a man who could make things happen - for a price. For a pound of marijuana and $44,000, the Koreatown attorney allegedly said, he could get an immigrant client a U.S. citizenship. "Price is OK for the risk," Lee told an associate, according to federal authorities. The silver-Corvette-driving attorney, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service agent, allegedly had associates at various stages of the immigration process willing to take bribes and provide favors for his clients.

The two candidates for Los Angeles mayor courted Latino voters on Saturday, promising to help those seeking citizenship and to help clean up and enhance Latino neighborhoods like Boyle Heights and Pacoima. Latino voters account for as much as a third of the city electorate. At the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools Cocoanut Grove Theater, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti fielded questions at a forum sponsored by the education fund of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, along with other local groups.

Central Valley farmers, Southern California bankers and Silicon Valley executives have all struggled to find workers - and they say an outdated immigration policy has been to blame. They're all hoping that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators will have the answer when it unveils its plan, as early as this week, to overhaul federal immigration laws. Their stance: Reform couldn't come quickly enough. "What's at stake is the future of our economy, whether we can remain the most entrepreneurial nation," said Steve Case, co-founder of America Online and now chairman of investment firm Revolution.

WASHINGTON - After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of eight senators is poised to offer a sweeping bill to rewrite the nation's immigration laws this week, taking advantage of a changed political alignment that, for the first time in nearly a generation, appears to have opened the way for comprehensive legislation. The bill would chart a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million people in this country without proper legal status, spend billions of dollars more on border security, create new legal guest worker programs for low-income jobs and farm labor, require new verification measures for most companies hiring new workers and significantly expand overall immigration to the U.S. for the next decade, according to an outline obtained by The Times' Washington bureau.

PARIS -- France's richest man, Bernard Arnault, the billionaire head of luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, has withdrawn his application for Belgian citizenship amid criticism that he was seeking to escape French taxes. The 64-year-old tycoon insisted in a newspaper interview that he never intended to avoid the French taxman or President François Hollande's proposed 75% "supertax" rate. Instead, he said, he wanted to save his family business empire from being torn apart if his five children from two marriages fell out after his death.

Business owners often have a tricky relationship with the idea of giving immigrant workers a path to citizenship. On the one hand, employers (usually) want to keep their workers happy and working hard, which often means seeing their families more than once a year. On the other hand, workers who have citizenship have less incentive to stay with one employer, and may leave tough, low-paying jobs for other work, leaving employers in the lurch. “If the guest workers did become citizens, some of them would probably stay, they enjoy the farm work, and like working outside,” said Rusty Barr, a farmer featured in a Sunday story about immigration reform.

Re "Family of a fallen Marine sees his citizenship dream fulfilled," Dec. 7 The whole idea of "posthumous citizenship" is almost Dickensian in its "pound-of-flesh" approach. The cynic in me sees this as a warm and fuzzy human interest story to make those who oppose a rational immigration policy feel human. So many questions jump out: Why did it take his death for Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez to become a citizen? Why isn't citizenship automatic upon military enlistment or entry into a combat unit?

Here's a tax tip for Mark Zuckerberg: Give up your U.S. citizenship. The 27-year-old Facebook Inc. founder could face a tax bill of more than $1 billion after the company's initial public offering, expected next week. His former Harvard classmate who is known as “the other Facebook founder” may have found a way to cut the bill. Eduardo Saverin, who now lives in Singapore, has given up his U.S. citizenship. Tax experts say it's a shrewd move. Saverin, who was immortalized in the film “The Social Network” as Zuckerberg's contentious former friend and business partner, has a 4% stake in the company, according to the Who Owns Facebook?

WASHINGTON -- Conservative Republicans are open to an overhaul of the nation's immigration system, including creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, according to a new report on voter attitudes in two states with early presidential contests. According to a Republican research group , recent discussions with Republican voters in Iowa and South Carolina indicated that conservatives are inclined to support the party's involvement in fixing immigration and may well reward potential presidential candidates, like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who have taken a prominent role in that effort.

WASHINGTON - Nearly three in four Americans say that illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain in the country legally, but fewer than half say they should be allowed to apply for citizenship. Those are the key findings of a new national poll, released Thursday, that reflects a positive shift in attitudes toward immigrants now in the United States. The survey, conducted March 13-17 by the Pew Research Center, comes as lawmakers in Washington are attempting to craft a comprehensive plan to deal with some 11 million people who are thought to be in the country illegally.