The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that a man born in New York City in 1950 is NOT an American citizen.
The court affirmed what the Constitution’s framers and generations of Americans have always understood, the Fourteenth Amendment does not grant automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to foreign diplomats.
The case involved Roberto Moncada, who was born in New York City in 1950 while his father served as a Nicaraguan attaché at the United Nations.
For nearly seventy years, Moncada lived as an American, holding passports and even swearing oaths of allegiance multiple times.
But in 2018, after reviewing records, the government discovered that his father had served as an attaché, a diplomatic position that carried full immunity, not a simple consul as previously believed.
That detail changed everything. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, only those born “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States are citizens.
Children of foreign ministers and diplomats are explicitly excluded. Moncada’s father’s immunity meant his entire household, including his newborn son, was outside U.S. jurisdiction.
The court reviewed conflicting evidence, including records listing Moncada’s father as both “Deputy Consul” and “Attaché.” But after weighing the record, most importantly the State Department’s “Blue List” identifying him as an attaché with full diplomatic privileges, the panel concluded that the government had proved by clear and convincing evidence that Moncada was never a U.S. citizen
Moncada filed suit in 2019 to challenge that decision.
Hellbound and Down 