The United States adopted judicial naturalization in 1790 and the nation's courts conducted most naturalization proceedings until the late 20th century. But it wasn't until 1906 that a provision was made to revoke citizenship that was fraudulently or illegally obtained. Prior to 1906, an immigrant seeking naturalization almost always petitioned a court. A judge decided the applicant's eligibility for citizenship and entered an order either granting or denying the petition. The clerk of the court then made a permanent record of the proceedings in the court's records. Once a judgement was made, there was no way to revoke it, even if the individual was found to have perjured himself. The person was protected under the judicial law of res judicata, a matter that has been adjudicated by a competent court and may not be pursued further by the same parties, including the United States. President Benjamin Harris urged Congress to act on this as early as 1890.
In 1890, Attorney General William H. H. Miller filed nearly one hundred Bill in Equity complaints regarding fraudulent certificates of naturalization and found a very large number of them had been issued. President Benjamin Harrison took this information to Congress in his 1890 State of the Union address and urged them to amend the laws so that naturalization proceedings "require a more full and searching inquiry into all the facts necessary to naturalization before any certificates are granted". Harrison compared the lack of inquiry into American citizenship to that of the "pettiest property right" which was heard with much more care and fairness.
"The vacation by judicial decrees of fraudulent certificates of naturalization, upon bills in equity filed by the Attorney-General in the circuit court of the United States, is a new application of a familiar equity jurisdiction. Nearly one hundred such decrees have been taken during the year, the evidence disclosing that a very large number of fraudulent certificates of naturalization have been issued. And in this connection I beg to renew my recommendation that the laws be so amended as to require a more full and searching inquiry into all the facts necessary to naturalization before any certificates are granted. it certainly is not too much to require that an application for American citizenship shall be heard with as much care and recorded with as much formality as are given to cases involving the pettiest property right."Tightening up our immigration policies was one of Benjamin Harrison's policy goals. He spoke on it during his inauguration address as well.
"Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship more careful and searching. Our existing laws have been in their administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions."
Unfortunately, it wasn't until 1906 long after Harrison left office that Congress finally acted on this when they enacted the Naturalization Act of 1906. In a report to Congress requested by President Theodore Roosevelt, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization noted that in the last two years, the special attorney filed 791 criminal complaints of naturalization fraud and secured 685 cases, while at the same time 1916 fraudulent certificates of naturalization were cancelled through civil proceedings. The report suggested that in some locations the counterfeiting and sale of fraudulent certificates of naturalization was conducted on such a large scale that it could practically "assume the proportions of a district branch of business". The report suggested that a law be enacted "prescribing a fixed and uniform system and a code of procedure in naturalization matters". The Naturalization act of 1906 created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization and established the federal government as the sole arbitrar of naturalization policies.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Second Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-14 [Accessed 11 Jan. 2019].
Avalon.law.yale.edu. (2019). The Avalon Project : Inaugural Address of Benjamin Harrison. [online] Available at: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/harris.asp [Accessed 11 Jan. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Naturalization Act of 1906. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1906 [Accessed 11 Jan. 2019].
United States Congressional serial set, Issue 4905. (1906). United State Congress, pp.Bureau of Immigaration and Naturalization Report June 23, 1906.
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