Mr. Adee to Mr. Combs.
Washington , September 15, 1903 .
Sir: The Department has received your No. 96, of the 18th ultimo, stating that one Lazarus Marks applied to you for a passport, inquiring at the same time what was the status of his sons, and that you refused to issue a passport to him or to his son, 26 years of age, informing him, however, that his minor sons might obtain passports upon reaching the age of 21 years and making the proper declarations. You state that Lazarus Marks was born in Prussia, that he emigrated to this country in his youth, where he was naturalized as a citizen of the United States, and that in 1870 he went to Guatemala, where he has since resided continuously and without intention of returning to the United States. All of his children were born in Guatemala.
The Department is of opinion that Lazarus Marks has lost his right to the protection of a passport. The case is covered by the Department’s circular of instruction of March 27, 1899, wherein it is stated:
When an applicant has completely severed his relations with the United States; has neither kindred nor property here; has married and established a home in a foreign land; has engaged in business or professional pursuits wholly in foreign countries; has so shaped his plans as to make i£ impossible or improbable that they will ever include a domicile in this country—these and similar circumstances should exercise an adverse influence in determining the question whether or not a passport should issue.
It would also appear that the son, David Marks, 26 years of age, is not entitled to a passport, because he has, by his permanent residence in Guatemala, the land of his birth, where lie intends to remain, inferentially elected other nationality than that of the United States.
But Abelardo Marks, aged 20, and the other minor sons of Lazarus Marks are in a different category. In denying to the father the protection of a passport the Department does not say when he lost his American citizenship, or even that he has positively lost it, there being no statutory authorization upon which the executive can base a definition of expatriation or state when it has been accomplished. The children of Lazarus Marks are therefore entitled to the benefits of section 1993 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which declares that children born outside of the United States whose fathers were at the time of their birth citizens thereof, are themselves citizens of the United States, and until they reach their majority they are not competent to elect another nationality. The status of Marks’s minor children is, as it would appear, identical with that of Rafael Franklin Hine, who applied for a passport in Costa Rica in 1901, and is covered by the Department’s instruction to Mr. Merry in that case to issue the passport. (Mr. Hill to Mr. Merry, May 7, 1901, Foreign Relations, 1901, p. 421.)
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.