I’m nobody’s first target for deportation, but having a Certificate of Birth Abroad myself, rather than the standard, I can easily imagine that raising hackles for a petty bureaucrat in a lot of more vulnerable people’s cases. - ThreadSky

tkingfisher.com • 217 days ago

I’m nobody’s first target for deportation, but having a Certificate of Birth Abroad myself, rather than the standard, I can easily imagine that raising hackles for a petty bureaucrat in a lot of more vulnerable people’s cases.

Reposted from Angela

Plenty of this country’s residents would not have a way to prove they are citizens if they were asked today, right now. It is so much more tenuous than everyone thinks.

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berrysbramble.bsky.social•217 days ago

My brother was born in Uruguay while my dad was doing PhD research. When he went to summer school in the town we grew up in (at the uni my dad taught at), they legit tried to charge him international student fees.

bunshonokai.bsky.social•217 days ago

Sometimes citizenship just feels like feudalism on a larger scale with a few coats of paint, like in theory a proper administrative unit would be able to take care of everyone in its zone without artificial limitations

lcatala.bsky.social•217 days ago

As a European I'm always slightly worried about the apparent inability of the US government to just keep track of who its ciitizens are. I remember an article discussing US citizens living abroad and the answer to who and how many they are was basically "we have no idea".

nightrythm.bsky.social•217 days ago

Getting my social security card at 16 was a ... learning experience for myself and the clerk attending me. I learned the phrase "foreign born citizen". She learned to properly read a birth certificate and not just the place of birth. 🙄

kozufox.bsky.social•217 days ago

I imagine the first victims of this would be a mix of people who look too brown in the eyes of some petty beurocrat somewhere, and people who the local police think are the wrong kind of political. There's a sordid history in this country of socialists and anarchists being deported illegally.

ferles.bsky.social•217 days ago

I think you would actually have a pretty large target on your head. Everyone knows that wombats are Australian

illuviel.bsky.social•216 days ago

Does yours lack a gender/sex marker? Mine does, and I intend to use that datum at petty bureaucrats who insist that my birth certificate and ID match.

apsalartoll.bsky.social•217 days ago

My mother was a US home birth. She has a birth cert that she got when she was in high school with affidavits (that she obtained at the time) from the doctor and 2 adults who knew her since birth. And it was very difficult for her to get a passport a few years ago.

nick.goede.cc•217 days ago

There is no proof good enough anyway if they want to say you’re not a citizen. All proof emanates from the same power that is trying to remove you.

antiangie.bsky.social•217 days ago

Yes, this exactly. They can constantly move the goalposts if they so choose.

milesnaismith.bsky.social•217 days ago

Right there with you. Born in Switzerland to US parents. Every time I get asked for a birth certificate the US Government breaks. I have to point out that this is THEIR form from THEIR embassy. When I had to get a security clearance it really broke them.

avianscribe.bsky.social•217 days ago

Our state changed drivers license renewal to require presenting a birth certificate in person, and when my husband showed up with his certificate of birth abroad, the clerk had never seen one and didn’t know what to do—and something that should have taken fifteen minutes tops took a full hour.

avianscribe.bsky.social•217 days ago

And we’re definitely NOT in any risky demographics.

lonelysandperson.bsky.social•217 days ago

When the bureaucrat can say, "Mm, looks fake" and go shred official documents, none of us have any documentation.

patman.bsky.social•217 days ago

I have that same certificate for me (having been born on the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay.)
My daughter at least has a passport card in her wallet (she's adopted from China, and when our family all renewed passports, I made sure that she got the card as well, to have on her)
Maybe I need the card

kate7.bsky.social•217 days ago

My grandfather had documents "lost" in political retribution against his father, and he was 3 generations after they immigrated from Germany, so I have no illusions that anyone is safe from being targeted if those with the power to do so decide to.

kate7.bsky.social•217 days ago

(By his own party, no less - no one is safe just because the people in power are "their" people.)

diandramae.com•217 days ago

I was born abroad on military base, and the hoops I have to jump through for seemingly “simple” tasks like passport renewal, just reinforce how tenuous an “acceptable presence” is.

tkingfisher.com•217 days ago

Likewise! And I had all my infant immunizations again at 17 because just try to get copies of that shit.

lizardky.bsky.social•217 days ago

My wife, born in NJ to natural-born citizens (I think all the grandparents were, too. Some of her family goes back to a relative of Cotton Mather!), needed a birth certificate. Since she took my name when we married, she needed our marriage license. But to get THAT, she needed her birth certificate.

tkingfisher.com•217 days ago

I had the Exact. Same. Thing. Ended up paying $200 for somebody to hand-carry a document to the relevant people in DC.

jons253.bsky.social•217 days ago

I really do need to get another copy of mine, which hasn't been relevant to me since I enlisted in '86. But these people would deport me anyway, since as I recall Idaho's says "Certificate of Live Birth".

axolotl232.bsky.social•217 days ago

Our child's pediatrician railed at us for skipping some of their jabs - turned out his staff didn't know how to interpret the day/month/year version of dates, so just skipped the ones that took place after the 12th of the month.

diandramae.com•217 days ago

My mom would take our medical files home after dr. appts, bc the process of checking in on base, carrying the records to the appropriate building, waiting on a doc, etc. was insane. She made copies of some of them at work & that is the ONLY way I had access my immunizations to attend college. 🙃

jennbower.bsky.social•217 days ago

Wow!!

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