Securing America's Borders Act

SECURING AMERICA'S BORDERS ACT

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Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I would like to speak to an amendment designed to clarify existing immigration law and ease the burden on families sent abroad in service to the United States.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, there is normally a 3-year residence requirement for spouses of U.S. citizens to be naturalized. Section 319 (B)(3) waives that requirement for applicants whose citizen spouses are ordered abroad by our Government to keep families intact while certain members do their duty to our country, wherever in the world that may require them to go. The same law rightly places value on cohabitation between spouses in requiring that applicants spend no more than 45 days away from their citizen spouse. The waiver provided under existing law is clearly intended to prevent our Government from splitting up families whose members are in the service of this country for the mere purpose of satisfying shortsighted antifamily regulations. Yet that is exactly what has occurred as a result of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services' overly narrow interpretation of this law.

I wish to briefly tell you a story about two constituents of mine, a husband and wife from New Orleans, who were subjected to this particular fate. Brett Schexnider has served as an Active-Duty officer in the Armed Forces for more than 20 years, and holds the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy. Commander Schexnider married his wife Gisele in March of 1999. When the Navy ordered Commander Schexnider to leave New Orleans for a foreign post over 2 years later, Gisele, who is originally from France, understandingly and dutifully accompanied her husband on his tour of duty. After 14 months, the Navy sent Commander Schexnider back home, and his wife returned with him. Four months later, she applied for naturalization. Her application was denied as a result of her having joined her husband abroad, which caused a break in the 3 years of continuous residence normally required. Relying neither on explicit regulation nor statute, USCIS determined that she was no longer entitled to a waiver of the 3-year requirement because her husband had returned to the United States by the time she filed her application. After 6 years of marriage, Gisele was told that she would have to wait another 3 years before her application could be approved. I submit to my colleagues that this unwritten policy and absurd determination is not only bureaucratically senseless but also a shameful offense to the institution of marriage.

Again, this amendment does not seek to do anything more than clarify existing law so that it may achieve its original purpose. The provision in Federal regulations requiring that duty abroad last at least 1 year would remain intact, as would the requirement that an applicant be present in the United States at the time of naturalization. My amendment would simply prevent applicants from failing residence requirements if they choose to follow their spouse to a Government-ordered post.

Our military families and the families of this Nation's public servants who are sent abroad do not deserve to be punished for their service. The laws of this Government and the agencies that execute them must not be allowed to separate families whose members stand up to answer the call of duty, and I would hope that all my colleagues could join me in protecting our Nation's families from this disgraceful practice.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Amendment be printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. __X. RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN ALIEN SPOUSES.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of determining eligibility for naturalization under section 319 of the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to an alien spouse who is married to a citizen spouse who was stationed abroad on orders from the United States Government for a period of not less than 1 year and reassigned to the United States thereafter, the following rules shall apply:

(1) The citizen spouse shall be treated as regularly scheduled abroad without regard to whether the citizen spouse is reassigned to duty in the United States.

(2) Any period of time during which the alien spouse is living abroad with his or her citizen spouse shall be treated as residency within the United States for purposes of meeting the residency requirements under section 319 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, even if the citizen spouse is reassigned to duty in the United States at the time the alien spouse files an application for naturalization.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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