Want to prove who you are? Get a birth certificate. Want to get a birth certificate? Prove who you are.
In case you thought only actual immigrants suffered by our kooky bureaucracy, give Erik K. Ward's story a read.
A staff member at the Center for New Community, Ward, an African American whose family moved to California over 100 years ago, explains how he went from born citizen to undocumented after losing his passport and social security card in an airport mishap. Lacking a driver's license because of a visual impairment, Ward needed to obtain a copy of his birth certificate. Try to follow along through the (insert your favorite pejorative adjective for bureaucracies) maze:
I contacted the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and was told that in order to receive my birth certificate, I needed to present a copy of my passport, or driver’s license, to verify I was, in actuality, Eric K. Ward.
Since it was obvious, after twenty minutes of discussion, that I didn’t own a driver’s license, a passport, or a social security card, they told me to fill out the proper forms in front of a notary public in Chicago.... But when I got there, the notary public said I needed a passport, social security card, or driver’s license to receive an official notary seal....
[S]ince I had a number of newspaper articles with photos documenting my identity, the notary public accepted my articles with somewhat dubious satisfaction....Four weeks later my birth certificate arrived!
But when I arrived at the Post Office to pick it up, the attendant asked me to produce a passport, driver’s license and, most ironically, a copy of my birth certificate to obtain my birth certificate. After waiting an hour and pleading with two supervisors, I‘m proud to say that I now possess a certified birth certificate!
I wish I could say everything went smoothly from this point on....
If you can stomach it, there's more where that came from. But the kicker:
As African Americans we should be deeply concerned about the ongoing attack on immigrants and refugees. Why?
We know what it’s like to be second-class citizens -- and it’s about to happen again.
Thanks to the Immigration Law Professors' Blog for the link.
Be an optimist, see the glass as half full. A guy with the flimsiest of documentation goes through, I reckon, a maximum of 3-4 hours of hassle to get his birth certificate (excluding waiting time). Seems to me that's a story of just how painless tightening up documentation requirements will be for those who are actually entitled to documents.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | July 01, 2008 at 02:31 PM
It would be such a black eye on the United States if a huge segment of the population, which I am in, would be forced to live as if this were the Soviet Union.
As a Latino, I prefer not to live my life feeling, despite my family living in the American Southwest long before it was part of the U.S., that I needed to carry laminated documentation of who I was and my right to be here at all times.
Posted by: Matt | July 04, 2008 at 09:26 PM
The kicker is this: The United States has a history of civil liberties that is unparalleled, even in the Latin American countries from which most migrants come.
To implement the solutions that most anti-migrant advocates and organizations are calling for, is a radical departure from U.S. tradition, in which a U.S. citizen does not have give up his or her rights and be identified, and therefore be vulnerable to government control and manipulation.
Erik Ward tell the truth. A good portion of black people in the U.S. do not have the ability to document themselves as citizens. We've already seen in the war an terror how quickly black people, or latinos, can lose their rights as citizens of the U.S. government and become enemies of the U.S. It seem radical, but the truth dictates otherwise.
Posted by: kyledeb | July 05, 2008 at 03:42 AM
I don't know if others were having a problem finding the original blog post like I was. I found it over at Imagine2050. You can find the exact blog here. Obviously the person who commented above me didn't read the whole post before giving their opinion.
Sounds like it took more than 3-4 hours to finally get his identification . . . if he ever did. Maybe people should spend time actually reading before commenting.
Just a thought!
Posted by: Darryl Warren | July 05, 2008 at 09:18 AM
@ Mitchell
"Be an optimist, see the glass as half full." HaHa, I offer the words of late George Carlin on whether the glass is half empty or half full, "...it's that the glass is to big".
You may have all the time in the world to waste, but 3-4 hours of "hassle", on top of "waiting time", hardly makes an optimist out of anyone I know.
Posted by: Tony Herrera | July 05, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Certain populations in the U.S. face greater difficulty than others in proving they are who they are. About 8% of whites don’t have a government-issued photo ID, compared to approximately 25% of voting-age African Americans. Older Americans who no longer drive, the legally blind or disabled and poor who can’t afford the cost of a driver’s license, all of these people will have difficulty in proving their identities.
source: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/id_war.html
Posted by: josefine | July 05, 2008 at 02:53 PM
MY, I really can't agree with your interpretation. A guy born in this country, who used to have documents, has them stolen. After more than 2 years of nuttiness and circular bureaucracy, he still doesn't have documents. I don't see any cause for hope there, whatsoever.
Eric K. Ward had a birth certificate in the first place, which many older African-Americans don't. If he can't get himself re-documented, then what hope is there for the elders?
This situation is a disgrace.
Posted by: MdeG | July 05, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Mitchell, unfortunately, you must not have read Eric's article. 3-4 hours of hassle would be nice, but that's not at all the case.
Documentation requirements are easy enough for most of us, but African americans and naturalized immigrant citizens bear the brunt of this bureaucracy. We should not stand for any of our neighbors to be treated like second-class citizens.
Posted by: not an optimist | July 06, 2008 at 07:24 AM