This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Nguyen (D) was born in Saigon, Vietnam, on September 11, 1969, to co-petitioner Joseph Boulais and a Vietnamese citizen. Boulais and D's mother were not married. Boulais always has been a citizen of the United States. In June 1975, D, then almost six years of age, came to the United States. He became a lawful permanent resident and was raised in Texas by Boulais. In 1992, when D pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on a child. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on each count. Three years later, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (P) initiated deportation proceedings against D as an alien who had been convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude, as well as an aggravated felony. The Immigration Judge found him deportable. D appealed to the Board of Immigration of Appeals and, in 1998, while the matter was pending. D's father obtained an order of parentage from a state court, based on DNA testing. D was 28 years old. The Board dismissed D's appeal, rejecting his claim to United States citizenship because he had failed to establish compliance with 8 U. S. C. §1409(a), which sets forth the requirements for one who was born out of wedlock and abroad to a citizen father and a noncitizen mother. D appealed arguing that §1409 violates equal protection by providing different rules for attainment of citizenship by children born abroad and out of wedlock depending upon whether the one parent with American citizenship is the mother or the father. The court rejected the constitutional challenge to §1409(a).

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