US families contest Italian law restricting citizenship

Two U.S. families appeared before Italy’s highest court on Tuesday to challenge a law enacted last year by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government that restricts citizenship claims for descendants of Italian emigrants beyond two generations.

Attorney Marco Mellone argued before the Cassation Court that the law, which took effect in March 2025, should apply only to people born after its implementation. If successful, this interpretation could potentially restore citizenship pathways for millions of people with Italian ancestry living in the United States and parts of Latin America. A separate lawyer represented claimants from Venezuela with similar interests.

The court’s expanded panel is expected to deliver a binding ruling in the coming weeks that would set precedent for lower courts throughout Italy.

While Italy’s constitutional court upheld the validity of the law last month, Mellone maintains that the supreme court has authority to clarify its scope and application. “The families involved in this case are simply descendants from an Italian ancestor who emigrated in the late 19th century to the United States, like millions of other Italians,” Mellone explained before the hearing. “Today they are invoking their right to Italian citizenship.”

The case could have far-reaching implications, potentially affecting descendants of approximately 14 million Italians who emigrated between 1877 and 1914, according to Foreign Ministry statistics. Prior to the new law, individuals could claim Italian citizenship if they could prove ancestry dating back to Italy’s formation in 1861.

About a dozen additional people whose citizenship claims were halted by the new legislation gathered outside the courthouse in solidarity with the two families represented by Mellone.

Among them was Karen Bonadio, who hopes to eventually relocate to Italy based on her ancestry. She brought photographs of herself as a young child with her Italian-born great-grandparents, who emigrated from Basilicata in southern Italy to upstate New York. “The new law says, ‘all these great-grandchildren didn’t know their great-grandparents.’ This is from 1963, I think I was 3½,” she said, displaying the photograph that contradicts this assumption.

One of Mellone’s cases had previously been rejected in lower courts before the new law took effect. These earlier rejections were partially based on rulings that Italian emigrants who obtained foreign citizenship before having children could not transmit Italian citizenship to their descendants.

Jennifer Daley’s case exemplifies the complexity of these claims. Her grandfather, Giuseppe Dalfollo, immigrated to the United States in 1912 from the northern province of Trento when it was still under Austro-Hungarian control. He later married an Italian woman, brought her to America, and eventually became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Daley’s petition for citizenship has been navigating the Italian bureaucracy for nearly a decade.

For Daley, a historian from Salina, Kansas, the pursuit transcends paperwork. “It is truly a recognition of who I am, where I am from. It’s so much more than citizenship. It’s everything,” she explained by phone.

Alexis Traino, 34, who now lives primarily in Florence, described how her family heritage includes great-grandparents from Italy on both her maternal and paternal sides. “My entire life, I grew up knowing — and my parents always emphasized — that I was Italian. I had a very, very strong connection with Italy,” said Traino, who was in the process of gathering necessary documentation from both countries when the new law passed, effectively halting her application.

“I want to be Italian. I want to contribute to Italy and be a citizen,” she stated outside the courthouse.

The case highlights ongoing tensions between Italy’s efforts to control immigration and citizenship pathways versus the diaspora’s desire to maintain connections with their ancestral homeland. Italy, like many European nations, has grappled with defining citizenship rights in an era of increased global mobility and migration pressures.

The court’s forthcoming decision will likely establish important precedent regarding retroactive application of citizenship laws and could significantly impact millions of people of Italian descent worldwide who seek recognition of their heritage through formal citizenship.