I was just filling out the application for K2's passport--and renewing the kid's--when I caught this crazy passport thread and started pulling. Apparently, the State Department has flagged people who were delivered by at least 200 midwives around the country and is denying them passports unless they produce additional proof that they were actually born in the US.
The Sacramento Bee has the story of one guy, a 32-year-old Mexican American dad and ex-Marine who was born in Texas to a US citizen dad and a naturalized mom, who got tripped up trying to get passports for his family vacation to Cancun this month. [That's the other big/crazy news, that as of yesterday, all US citizens need passports to travel to Mexico or Canada. And here I thought NAFTA was supposed to save the TJ donkey party industry, not kill it.]
Anyway, the midwife thing is partly because some midwives, primarily in border states, were convicted of forging US birth certificates for Mexican-born babies. But according to the ACLU, which is pursuing a class action suit against the State Dept., the passport denial affects more midwives than that, in more states than that; any American with a foreign-sounding name [sic]--who was delivered by a midwife with a foreign-sounding name [sic]--might find themselves stuck.
Lincoln resident thought he was a U.S. citizen: Now he has to prove it [sacbee via reason]
I was listening to Rick Steeves the other day and he mentioned that there was going to be a whole lot of tightening around buying airline tickets having to do with your complete legal name.
Like if your birth/legal name is Super Daddy Types, but you have been known as, and using "S. Daddy Types" or even "Daddy Types", the name you buy your airline ticket under will now have to match you driver's license or passport exactly.
Try proving that a 90 year old orphan, who was left on a porch, is a US citizen. There is no way of taking Grandma out of the country.
Yes, JJ, the Department of Fatherland Security is trying to force all the airlines to start collecting the full legal name, birthdate and gender of all passengers.
Papers, please!
My Grandmother was born somewhere between North Dakota and Three Hills, Alberta in the fall of either 1919 or 1920. The gave her a birthdate because they were not sure of the exact day or year.
I think all this is going to do is resrict travel. I don't drive and I am not getting a passport to go shop in Buffalo, or to go to Disney World. Most people don't have a passport yet and I know many who won't get one, " to just to go to the states"