DNA Dilemma: Baby Can't Get US Citizenship

BRENTWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Andrew Dvash-Banks is a United States citizen. His husband is not. Elad is from Israel.

The dads married in Canada seven years ago.

"We had our beautiful twin boys Aidan and Ethan through surrogacy in Canada because that's where we were living at the time," said Elad.

The twins share an egg donor but one child has the DNA of Andrew and the other the DNA of Elad.

"We really wanted one kid that is biologically related to each one of us just to have this family that is everyone a part of the family," said Elad.

When the fathers decided to return to Andrew's home in Los Angeles, they ran into a problem.

Only Andrew's biological son gets US citizenship, not his other son who's biologically Elad's, who is not a US citizen.

"I just can't stop thinking about how I'm going to explain to him when he's older that he's different than his twin brother. His twin brother is American but he's a green card holder," said Andrew.

Both fathers' names are on the birth certificates but according to the State Department "... If the child does not have a biological connection to a US citizen parent, the child will not be a US citizen at birth."

"It's 2017 now. There's so many different types of families. Look at us. In the LGBT community there's so many different types of families and I really feel excluded in a way because of this law," said Andrew.

The couple didn't know about the law when they had their boys.

Andrew's now considering applying for his son's green card as a stepson or adopted son.

"I know it's not right in my heart and mind," said Andrew. "I would love the opportunity to have this law changed so the government will recognize him as my son as it should be."