atalantapendrag:

golbatgender:

atalantapendrag:

         The next phase in the Trump administration’s effort to reduce
immigration is to strip Americans who were simply born and raised near
the border with Mexico of their citizenship by claiming their birth
certificates and other birth documents are fraudulent. In June, U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of
Homeland Security, began an Orwellian-sounding process of “denaturalization”
of American citizens that the U.S. government believed obtained
citizenship through identity theft and fraud. Over the last nearly 30
years, revoking an American of citizenship has been exceedingly rare,
occurring in only several hundred instances. That appears set to change
and a Washington Post report
Wednesday found the government’s program of invalidating what appears
to be almost exclusively Hispanic Americans’ citizenship, by revoking
passports of Americans born along the southern border, is not a limited
piecemeal effort. It’s an active, if discreet American policy that’s
being carried out against card-carrying citizens.
       

         What’s happening? The Post recounted the story of Juan, a
40-year-old American, who was born in the border town of Brownsville,
Texas. Juan, has served as a private in the U.S. Army, later worked for
the Border Patrol, and is now a state prison guard. This year, when he
tried to renew his passport, the State Department denied the request,
saying, despite his American birth certificate, it didn’t believe he was
an American citizen. It’s not clear from the Post’s reporting exactly
how widespread this practice is, but those on the ground say it’s most
certainly a growing phenomenon. Interviews with immigration attorneys
“suggest a dramatic shift in both passport issuance and immigration
enforcement,” according to the Post.
       

Trump made his political career by insisting that the President—the first black president—had a fake birth certificate. This development is horrifying but not truly surprising.

It’s been his message all along – if you aren’t a very specific sort of person, you aren’t “really American”, aren’t really a person, and don’t count.

Trump Administration Is Trying to Systematically Strip Citizenship From Many Americans Born Near Mexico Border