Proving Citizenship In America

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.... He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands" (The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776).

Would you be able to prove that you are a legal citizen of the United States of America if asked to prove so while questioned by a police officer? Are you sure? Do you carry a birth certificate and a passport in your car or on your person?

Sure, you could pull out your driver's license, latest pay stub, show that you've paid taxes, served in the military, own a house, and countless other pieces of paper, but none of these would be sufficient.

Are you so very sure you have a birth certificate in the file cabinet? And even if you do, will you be allowed to go home and get it, or will you be locked up in the local jail? How long will you have to sit in jail, waiting for a birth certificate to arrive from the Vital Statistics office of the county you were born in?

Is that birth certificate any good? Most of us don't give this much thought.

I have a grandmother who could not receive social security benefits because her birth certificate didn't have her first name on it, only listing her as "Baby." It took quite awhile to prove she was that particular baby.

I haven't the foggiest idea where my birth certificate is. I hear rumours that it, along with the birth certificates of my siblings may have been tossed away with the turmoil and selfishness that occurs in family ruptures, not to mention a transient lifestyle.

And take a look at your child's birth certificate. Notice the past few years that, for some reason, the copy obtained these days is not always a certified birth certificate.

Really, it's amazing how much of life can be lived without ever having to think about one's birth certificate or the authenticity of it, although the latest presidential election and the anti-Mexican law recently passed in Arizona should cause us a bit more personal paper searching before we point fingers at others.

It would take quite awhile to prove myself a bona fide citizen. I have a family tree that goes back to Adam and Eve and dirt, but that wouldn't prove anything in front of a judge.

I wonder where I'd be deported to? Hopefully, New Zealand or Panama City, Panama.

Before one gets excited about Arizona's tough anti-immigration law, ask if it's a foot in the door to your house, under the guise of a boot to foreigners. Then, go look in the mirror, pull the log out of your eye, and use it to bare the door.