The whole bifer nonsense is ridiculous to begin with, but now they are just making up **** to support the fantasy. An age requirement on citizenship?
Actually, this is legitimate (believe it or not).
Citizenship is governed by law, which in turn varies by country. The USA is almost unique in granting citizenship automatically to anyone born in the country. Since Obama was (in reality) born in Hawai'i, he is and was a US citizen from birth. (And a "natural-born" citizen to boot.)
But let's play "pretend" and pretend he was actually born in Kenya.... Another set of rules come into play, rules that more-or-less say that you inherit the citizenship of your parents. If both of Obama's parents had been US citizens, again he would be a citizen from birth via this set of rules.
BUT,... one of his parents was not a US citizen; his father was Kenyan, and his mother was only 18 at the time of his birth. The relevant law (8 U.S. Code Section 1401 (b)) says that "a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States, who prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years" is a citizen.
The sting is in the final phrase. Obviously an 18 year old woman cannot have lived for at least five years after attaining the age of fourteen years
anywhere.
The law has later been amended; I
think that now there is a two-year period instead of five.
But the central point remains.
If Obama had been born in Kenya, then I believe he would not in fact have been a US citizen without going through naturalization as his mother was too young. The fact that the law is stupid does not mean it didn't exist.
