Case Information
*2 MATTER OF REYES In Visa Petition Proceedings A-22172079 Decided by Board August 28, 1980
(1) The term "legitimated" in section 101(b)(1)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act, 8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1)(C), has been interpreted by the Board to include those children
who were illegitimate at birth, but who thereafter through legally recognized means
attained the full legal status of legitimate children.
(2) A "legitimated" child is
one
placed "in all respects upon the same footing as if
begotten and born in wedloc.k...."
Pfeifer v. Wright,
In a decision dated March 20, 1978, this Board dismissed the peti-
tioner's appeal from a District Director's denial of a visa petition that
he had submitted on behalf of the beneficiary as his unmarried son.
The beneficiary had been born out of wedlock in the Dominican Repub-
lic and subsequently "acknowledged" by the petitioner under the laws
of that country. We concluded that an "acknowledged" child in the
Dominican Republic could not be equated with a "legitimated" child
within the meaning of section 101(b)(1)(C) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1)(C).
Matter of Reyes,
16 I&N Dec.
(BIA
1978). On October 18, .1979, the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of New York remanded the case to the Board
for further consideration.
Reyes v. INS,
his "unmarried son" under the provisions of section 203(a)(2) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1153(a)(2). To qualify as a
"son" for preference purposes, the beneficiary must qualify as the
petitioner's "child", as defined in section 101(b) of the Act.
See Naza-
reno v. A.G.,
Section 101(b)(1) provides in relevant part that
The term "child" means an unmarried person under twenty-one years of age who is—
(A) a legitimate child; or
(C) a child
legitimated under the law of the child's residence or domicile, or under the
law
of the father's residence or domicile, whether in or outside the United States, if
such legitimation takes place before the child reaches the age of eighteen years and
the child is in the legal custody of the legitimating parent or parents at the time of
such legitimation'
The term "legitimate" as used in section 101(b)(1)(A) of the Act was
The case was remanded to "the INS." The Board of Immigration Appeals is not part
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
See
8 C.F.R. 8.1(a)(1).
As the Board
entered the decision appealed from, however, reconsideration on remand is
appropriately before this Board.
Section 101(b)(1)(C) is relevant only to father-child relationships. Section
101(b)(1)(D) recognizes mother-child relationships, even where the child is illegitimate.
This distinction has been upheld by the Supreme Court in
Fiallo v. sell,
CYA
initially interpreted by the Board within conventional common law precepts as applying only to children born in wedlock. See Matter of Kubicka, 14 I&N Dec. 303 (BIA 1972). The term has since been held, however, to include children who are born out of wedlock within jurisdictions that have eliminated all distinctions between legitimacy and illegitimacy (i.e., where children have full filial rights and obliga- tions as to both natural parents by virtue of birth alone). See Matter of Pavlovic, Interim Decision 2799 (BIA 1980) (Yugoslavia); Matter of Bautista, Interim Decision 2731 (BIA 1979) (Puerto Rico); Matter of Wong,16 I&N Dee. 646 (MA 197S) (Peoples' Republic of China). There is no claim presented in the case before us that the beneficiary qualified as the petitioner's "legitimate" son.
The term "legitimated" in section 101(b)(1)(C) has been interpreted
by the Board to include those children who were illegitimate at birth,
but who thereafter through legally recognized means attained the full
legal status of legitimate children. The Board's interpretation of sec-
tion 101(b)(1)(C) resulted from the commonly accepted definition of
"legitimation" as being the act of putting an illegitimate child in the
position or state of a legitimate child before the law by legal means.See
Gordon and Rosenfield,
Immigration Law and Procedure
(Revised
Edition 1977), sec. 2.18(b)(3); 10 C.J.S. Bastards sec. 7 (1938);
Black's
Law Dictionary
811 (5th ed. 1979);
Bouvier 's Law Dictionary
1927-28
(3rd ed. 1914). Thus, a "legitimated" child is one placed "in all respects
upon the same footing as if begotten and born in wedlock ...", is
"invested with all the rights of a lawful child ...", and his or her "civil
and social status becomes that of a lawful child of the natural father,
the child and father thereafter [standing) in their relations to each
other
as
though the birth had been during wedlock"
Pfeifer v. Wright,
Excepting Matter of Lee, supra, the Board has never recognized processes (legal or otherwise) that did not place an illegitimate child on an equal footing with a legitimate child as satisfying the "legiti- mated" proviso of section 101(b)(1)(C). See Matter of Clahar, 16 I&N Dec. 484 (BIA 1978) (Jamaica); Matter of Remy,14 I&N Dec. 183 (BIA 1972) (Haiti); Matter of Greer, 14 I&N Dec. 16 (BIA 1972) (Montserrat, B.W.I.); Matter of Gouveia, 13 I&N Dec. 604 (BIA 1970) (Guyana); Matter of Doble-Pena, supra (Dominican Republic); Matter of Monma, 12 I&N Dec. 265 (BIA 1967) (Japan); Matter of Lauer, 12 I&N Dec. 210 (BIA 1967) (Germany); Matter of Mand,ewirth, 12 I&N Dec. 199 (BIA 1967) (Austria); Matter of Anastasiadis, 12 I&N Dec. 99 (BIA 1967) (Greece); Matter of Van Pamelen, 12 I&N Dec. 11 (BIA 1966) (The Netherlands); Matter of Maungea, 11 I&N Dec. 885' (BIA 1966) (Philip- pines); Matter of The, 10 I&N Dec. 744 (BIA 1964) (Indonesia); Matter of Archer, 10 I&N Dec. 92 (BIA 1962) (Trinidad, B.W.I.); Matter.of C—, 9 I&N Dec. 597 (BIA 1962) (Spain); Matter of C—, 9 I&N Dec. 268 (BIA 1961) (Italy); Matter of J—, 9 I&N Dec. 246 (BIA 1961) (British Gui- ana); Matter of W—, 9 I&N Dec. 223 (BIA 1961) (Surinam); Matter of F—, 7 I&N Dec. 448 (BIA 1957) (Portugal); Matter of D—, I&N Dec. 438 (BIA 1957) (Italy); Matter of J — , 7 I&N Dec. 338 (BIA 1956) (France). Each of these cases, which arose in countries that both distinguished between legitimate and illegitimate children and speci- fied the method by which a child could be legitimated, involved chil- dren who did not attain the full legal status of legitimate children.
Applying these principles to the present case, where the beneficiary was illegitimate at birth, was not "legitimated" by the means prescribed under the laws of the Dominican Republic, and did not attain all of the rights and status of a legitimate or legitimated child when acknowledged by the petitioner, we cannot conclude that the beneficiary was "legitimated" within the meaning of section 101(b)(1)(C) of the Act. Regarding the question of whether the differences in status between
a legitimated child and an acknowledged child in the Dominican
Republic are such that they can be rationally related to the purposes of
the Immigration Act so as to warrant including the former, but not the
latter, within the scope of section 101(b)(1)(C), we initially note the
language of the Supreme Court in
Fiallo v. Bell,
With respect to each of these legislative policy distinctions, it could be argued that the line should have been drawn at a different point and that the statutory definitions deny preferential status to parents and children who share strong family ties. But it is clear from our cases, ... that these are policy questions entrusted exclusively to the
roc
political branches of our Government, and we have no judicial authority to substitute our political judgment for that of the Congress. Rao at 798 (citations omitted). Where Congress has specified those father-child relationships which should be recognized for immigration purposes using terms of com- monly understood legal meaning, the Board cannot "redefine" those terms based on its own views as to how the purposes underlying the immigration laws might be better achieved. In interpreting the lan- guage of section 101(b), although one must be mindful of the purpose of the immigration laws to preserve the family unit, it must also be recognized that section 101(b) in fact embodies the Congressional conclusions as to which familial relationships warrant recognition. See Fiallo v. Bell, supra at '197. The requirement that legitimation occur before a father - child rela-
tionship will be recognized, however, may have in part resulted from a Congressional desire to adopt a rule of clear application, which oper- ated to discourage incidents of fraud and to recognize such relation- ships only where a father had already demonstrated for all non- immigration purposes that he wished the child to have equal status under the law with his legitimate children. See Hallo v. Bell, supra at n. 6. Cf. Peignand v. INS, supra (regarding the Nationality Act of 1940). The fact that distinctions arise in "matters concerning succession" in the Dominican Republic between legitimated and acknowledged children may well be relevant to such legislative purposes. First, any test dependent on a case-by-case assessment as to which distinctions in law between legitimated and acknowledged children are meaningful for immigration purposes would be far from a "bright-line test." Peignand v. INS, id. Moreover, as to the goal of minimizing the incidents of fraud, it could be concluded that fewer male fide applica- tions (i.e., involving individuals attempting to bestow or derive benefits from other than natural children) would result where the individual was forced to give a child an essentially irrevocable equal status under the eyes of the law with his own legitimate child in order to accomplish the fraud. In this regard, we note that perhaps the most significant legal distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate chil- dren (and certainly the most sensitive distinction giving rise to the majority of litigation in this area) have been differences involving inheritance rights. In any event, it is not the Board's role to probe and test the justification for the legislative decision.
We recognize that the Board's decision in Matter of Lee, supra, cannot be reconciled with the decision herein. Nor can the decision in Matter of Lee be meaningfully distinguished from over twenty years of Board precedent decisions, which were not referenced in that case. The decision in Lee resulted in major part from a desire to reunite a *7 family' This humanitarian desire, however, cannot justify a redraft- ing of the immigration laws by the Board and we withdraw from our decision in Lee. The petitioner's arguments herein should be addressed to Congress. See Fiallo v. Bell, supra at 799 n. 8; Matter of A — , 5 I&N Dec. 272, 284 (A.G. 1954).
ORDER: The visa petition is denied. 'Legitimation requirements which mandate marriage of the natural parents often make legitimation by the natural father impossible. This can of course be true even where a strong family tie exists between the father and child. That such relationships cannot be,cognized under the clear terms of section 101(b)(1) tempts one to define the provisions therein so that all bona fide familial relationships can be recognized. We believe this result can only be lawfully accomplished, however, by a redrafting of the laws in question by Congress.