Expat Repat, Detail

About the work

Linen, Archival linen tape, Archival ink. Detail of Installation (2019). This work honors American women by naming each woman who lived in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York who lost their American citizenship when they married an unnaturalized immigrant man between March 2, 1907, and September 22, 1922. Public Laws of the U.S. of A. passed by the 59th Congress, Session II. The Expatriation Act of March 2, 1907 [CH 2534, Sec. 3]. Any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband, i.e., she lost her American citizenship! Public Laws of the U.S. of A. passed by the 67th Congress, Session II. The Cable Act, AKA the “Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act”/“Married Women’s Act”) enacted on September 22, 1922. [Ch. 411… An American woman will not have her citizenship taken away if she marries an immigrant unless he is an alien ineligible to citizenship…. Any woman who had lost her American citizenship through marriage to an alien eligible for citizenship was consequently allowed to apply to be repatriated.