A gay married couple is suing over the State Department’s refusal to recognize their 2-month-old daughter’s U.S. citizenship because the agency says their policy considers the child born “out of wedlock,” CNN reported.
Maryland residents Roee Kiviti and Adiel Kiviti are naturalized U.S. citizens, and their baby, Kessem, was born in Canada via surrogate. Both parents are on the child’s birth certificate, but “Immigration Equality, Lambda Legal and the law firm Morgan Lewis, which represent the Kivitis, in a press release notes the State Department is treating the couple’s daughter as ‘born out of wedlock’ because only Adiel Kiviti has a biological connection to her,” according to the Washington Blade.
The couple notes that their 3-year-old son, Lev, was also born via surrogate in Canada in 2016, and they had no issues when it came to his documentation. “We got Lev’s passport within two days,” Kiviti told CNN. “We did the exact same process with our daughter Kessem earlier this month, and then received a phone call indicating that this was being treated as an out-of-wedlock birth, and as such, there are additional requirements that need to be met.”
This is not the only gay couple to recently be blindsided by the Trump administration and have their child’s citizenship put in doubt. “An attorney for the Kiviti family says their suit is at least the fourth such case to challenge the policy,” NBC News reported. Roee and Adiel now worry if their family will be forced apart, or uprooted entirely.
"We were there when she was first born, when she took her first breath, when she first cried,” Kiviti continued. “We were the first people to hold her, we gave her her first feeding, her first bath. She first slept on our chests. We are her only parents, the only parents she's ever known. We are her parents as much as your children are yours. And to have that questioned is unsettling."