FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT ILAI KANUTU KOONWAIYOU, No. 22-35233 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 3:21-cv-05474- DGE ANTONY J. BLINKEN, Secretary of State; UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, OPINION Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington David G. Estudillo, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted December 6, 2022 San Francisco, California Filed June 7, 2023 Before: Jacqueline H. Nguyen and Lucy H. Koh, Circuit Judges, and Joseph F. Bataillon, District Judge* Opinion by Judge Koh * The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska, sitting by designation. 2 KOONWAIYOU V. BLINKEN SUMMARY** Immigration The panel reversed the district court’s grant of the Government’s motion to dismiss in a case in which Ilai Kanutu Koonwaiyou sought a declaration that his mother’s status as a non-citizen national—which she attained after Koonwaiyou’s birth—qualified him to be a non-citizen national of the United States, and remanded. In 1986, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (“INA”) to make individuals born to only one non-citizen national parent outside the United States and American Samoa eligible to become “nationals, but not citizens, of the United States at birth.” 8 U.S.C. § 1408. Prior to 1986, such status extended only to (1) those born in American Samoa, (2) those born outside the United States or American Samoa with two non-citizen national parents, and (3) those found in American Samoa under the age of five whose parents are unknown. The panel explained that Congress has extended citizenship to individuals born in every United States territory, except American Samoa, meaning that those with ties to American Samoa are the only group eligible for non- citizen national status. The status of an American Samoan is a hybrid: for example, as non-citizens, they are denied the right to vote and run for federal or state office outside American Samoa; but as nationals, they can serve in the ** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. KOONWAIYOU V. BLINKEN 3 American military, receive most federal benefits, travel freely in the United States, and cannot be removed as aliens. Koonwaiyou was born in 1967 in Western Samoa to a Western Samoan father and an American Samoan mother. His mother is now a non-citizen national, but she only became eligible under the 1986 amendments and did not attain her status until after Koonwaiyou was born. Koonwaiyou sought a declaration that his mother’s status qualifies him to be a non-citizen national. The district court held that, under the 1986 amendments, Koonwaiyou’s mother’s status as a national commenced only on the date it was conferred and was not retroactive to her date of birth. The court therefore found Koonwaiyou did not qualify to be a non-citizen national. To answer the narrow question whether Koonwaiyou qualifies for non-citizen national status, the panel wrote that it must decide whether those individuals, …
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