The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled against a man from Trinidad and Tobago, denying his claim to U.S. citizenship and upholding his deportation, despite the fact that he held a wrongfully-issued Certificate of Citizenship for over two decades.
The case involves Lall, a man who was issued a Certificate of Citizenship by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) in 1991 after applying for U.S. citizenship.
However, the agency determined in the same year that Lall had not actually acquired citizenship, a decision that was only communicated to him in 2012, while he was serving a prison sentence for a drug conviction.
Lall’s legal troubles began when he was convicted of conspiracy to import five kilograms or more of cocaine, following an investigation into a drug importation ring involving employees at JFK Airport in New York City.
In 2020, while still incarcerated, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) interviewed Lall and determined that he was a “removable alien with no proper claim to U.S. citizenship” due to his conviction. In 2021, an immigration court ordered Lall’s removal to Trinidad and Tobago, and he was subsequently deported.
Lall, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, entered the U.S. after being adopted by his parents, who were naturalized U.S. citizens. In 1990, Lall, then 17 and a permanent resident, applied for derivative citizenship under §321 of the former Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which allowed children to acquire citizenship when their parents naturalized.
However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined that Lall did not meet the residency requirements under that section, as he had not resided in the U.S. when his parents naturalized in the 1970s.
Lall challenged this determination by claiming eligibility under INA §322, which allowed foreign-born children generally residing outside the U.S. to naturalize. However, USCIS noted that Lall had only been interviewed by INS and sworn the Oath of Allegiance after turning 18, making him ineligible under that section as well.
The Third Circuit upheld these findings, stating that a Certificate of Citizenship is merely proof of citizenship and does not itself confer such status. The court stated that citizenship can only be lawfully conferred when statutory requirements are met, which Lall did not satisfy.
While the court criticized USCIS for its failure to promptly notify Lall about the cancellation of his Certificate of Citizenship—facilitating confusion about his status—the panel concluded that it could not grant citizenship to Lall as doing so would “circumvent the strict statutory requirements” for conferring citizenship. The court cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in I.N.S. v. Pangilinan, reinforcing the principle that citizenship can only be granted according to the law.
The court’s decision highlighted the unfortunate circumstances of Lall’s case:
“It is unfortunate that the government erroneously issued Lall a Certificate of Citizenship in the first place. And it is inexcusable that it quickly discovered its error but failed to correct it for over twenty-one years. Of course, it is Lall’s own subsequent criminal conduct that has brought the consequences of the government’s dereliction down on his head. Still, that dereliction has fundamentally changed Lall’s identity and place in the world. He turns to us for assistance, but we cannot provide the relief he seeks. Not every wrong is ours to right.”
