A federal judge in California has ruled on a highly contentious immigration case that sets a new precedent and will elicit a sigh of relief for gay married couples everywhere.
At issue was the fact that although both twins were born to the same surrogate, because sperm from each of the men was used to inseminate each egg separately, then the one child whose father is Israeli, was shockingly not considered an American citizen.
“The government had only granted citizenship to Aiden, who DNA tests showed was the biological son of Andrew, a U.S. citizen, said NBC News. While, “Ethan was conceived from the sperm of Elad Dvash-Banks, an Israeli citizen.”
“The State Department was wrong to deny citizenship to 2-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks because U.S. law does not require a child to show a biological relationship with their parents if their parents were married at the time of their birth, District Judge John F. Walter found,” according to the AP.
“Andrew is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Los Angeles. He moved to Israel to work and study, and it was there that he met Elad, his future husband. Andrew and Elad knew they wanted to marry and have a family, but because of the Defense of Marriage Act, Andrew could not sponsor Elad for a visa to be with him in the U.S. where all of Andrew’s family is. Andrew is a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, so he and Elad chose to move to Canada, where they were able to legally marry and have their marriage recognized so Andrew could sponsor Elad. There, they had twin sons, Ethan and Aiden, through surrogacy. When they sought recognition of the twins’ U.S. citizenship, Andrew and Elad were forced to submit DNA tests and other documentation of their biological relationships to their boys, even though no such requirement exists for the children of a married U.S. citizen,” reported Immigration Equality last year.
Watch their full story below.
