Opinion ID: 8414556
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dominican Law

Text: Gil concedes he was not a legitimated child under Dominican law at the time his father became a naturalized citizen in 1980. He argues instead that, due to the retroactive application of a subsequently enacted law, the Dominican Republic now treats him as gaining legitimating status at the time of his birth, well before his father received naturalized citizenship. We are not persuaded. In 1980, the Dominican law in effect accorded different succession rights to children born out of wedlock based on whether their parents later married each other. See De Los Santos, 690 F.2d at 58 (referring to Law 985 of Aug. 1, 1945, art. 1). Under that law, a child born out of wedlock to unmarried parents was entitled to only half the inheritance share attributable to a child born in wedlock or a child born out of wedlock to subsequently married parents. See id. (describing Law 985, art. 10). In 1994, the Dominican Republic enacted the Code for the Protection of Children (the “Code”), which “changed the Dominican law on parentage and filiation to eliminate all- legal distinctions between children born in wedlock and those born out of wedlock.” In re Martinez-Gonzalez, 21 I. & N. Dec. 1035, 1038 (BIA 1997) (describing the “enactment of Ley No. 14-19 que crea el Codigo para la Protección de Ninos, Ninas y Adolescentes Gaceta Official, Apr. 25, 1994 (enacted Apr. 22, 1994) (hereinafter Code for the Protection of Children)” (alteration omitted)). The new law became effective on January 1, 1995 and “was intended to apply to all present and future legal situations and to legal situations that were established and created before the promulgation of the law and continue in existence after such promulgation.” Id. (internal quotation marks, citation, and ellipses omitted). Gil asserts that the Code applied retroactively to legitimate all children born out of wedlock, even those who reached adulthood prior to the enactment of the new law. In support, he presents (1) two legal opinions by the Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic, which he describes as a judicial body in the Dominican Republic, applying the new law specifically to him and (2) a legal opinion by an expert in Dominican law stating that, due to the new law, the Dominican Republic has always recognized Gil as a legitimated child. Gil therefore concludes that he was a “child” within the meaning of § 101(c)(1) because he was “legitimated” under Dominican law at the time of his father’s naturalization, by virtue of the Code’s retroactive effect. Section 101(c)(1), however, explicitly requires that the legitimation occur “before the child reaches the age of 16 years.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(c)(1). The legitimizing act at issue here was the enactment of the Code, a law that became effective well after Gil’s sixteenth birthday. See Martinez-Gonzalez, 21 I. & N. Dec. at 1038 (holding, with respect to the analogous provision at § 101(b)(1)(C), that “[t]he legitimizing act in the case of Dominican law could be either the change in the law itself or the acknowledgement of paternity”). Because Gil did not gain legitimated status under the new law before he turned sixteen years old, he is not a legitimated child within the plain meaning of § 101(c)(1). See id. at 1038-39 (concluding that children who reached the statutory age limit “prior to January 1, 1995, the effective date of the Code for the Protection of Children, and who were not legitimated under the former Dominican law,” could not satisfy the requirements in § 101(b)(1)(C) because the legitimating act — the change in Dominican law — came too late); see also Anderson v. Holder, 673 F.3d 1089, 1100 (9th Cir. 2012) (“[Wjhen legal distinctions are eliminated between children born to married parents and those born out of wedlock, the children born out of wedlock are deemed to be legitimated as of the date the laws are changed.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). Gil’s argument, rejected by the IJ and BIA, that the new Dominican law treats his legitimation as occurring at the time of birth is inapposite because § 101(c)(1) does not incorporate Dominican law in setting forth the timing requirement. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(c)(1) (defining “child” as including a child legitimated under the law of the child’s or father’s residence or domicile “if such legitimation ... takes place before the child reaches the age of 16 years”). Rather, Gil’s legitimation took place on January 1, 1995, when the Code took effect, and when he was twenty-six years old. Accordingly, Gil was not a “child,” as defined in § 101(c)(1), based on the Code because the elimination of legal distinctions between children born in and out of wedlock under Dominican law did not occur before his sixteenth birthday.