8 U.S.C. § 1402
Section 1402 · Persons born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899
This is § 302 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 29 court decisions — leading case Sessions v. Morales-Santana (2017)
Most recently applied in Ilai Koonwaiyou v. Antony Blinken (June 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, and prior to January 13, 1941, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, residing on January 13, 1941, in Puerto Rico or other territory over which the United States exercises rights of sovereignty and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, are declared to be citizens of the United States as of January 13, 1941. All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States at birth.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Cross References
United States defined, see section 1101 of this title.