Nationality Issue for 2 Countries : Change in Mexican law might necessitate adjustments on U.S. side

Mexico’s Senate has voted to amend the constitution to permit Mexicans who have become citizens of other countries to recover their nationality. So, for instance, one could be a Mexican national and an American citizen at the same time. Why would one want to? For some very fundamental reasons, like property rights and, more significantly, to enjoy the legal protections of both countries. Under the proposed Mexican law, naturalized American citizens born in Mexico would have five years to apply to recover their Mexican nationality.

Support for the law is almost unanimous in the multi-party Congress, and the Chamber of Deputies is expected to endorse the decision later this week.

The United States, home to millions of Mexican-born people, has played no part in the process, though a new law might raise some fundamental issues here.

By retaining their Mexican nationality after they became naturalized U.S. citizens, Mexican-born men and women would have some important advantages. For instance, American citizens cannot now own coastal or border property in Mexico. But by recovering their Mexican nationality, these American citizens would have unrestricted property rights in Mexico, as well as in the United States.

Property rights, however, were not the engine that propelled the measure. More important was the attitude in the Mexican Congress that countrymen living in the United States were vulnerable to perceived anti-Mexican feelings in California and elsewhere, a feeling exemplified by Proposition 187. That 1994 California ballot measure, now blocked in the courts, sought to denied some government services to illegal immigrants.

We must ask on this side of the border if we have mechanisms in place to resolve any problems that may arise from a change. Some issues, like double taxation, could be avoided under the framework established by the North American Free Trade Agreement. But the situation is murkier regarding extradition of criminals. U.S. citizenship and Mexican nationality would make some extradition cases difficult.

This would be a Mexican law, with the consequences falling mainly in that country, but the web of economic and legal implications would take time to sort out.