Papers please. I hate those words and the images that they flash through my mind. The thought that there was a time like that in the world seems surreal. Images shown in history class haunted me as a teenager. The tears slid down my face as I wanted to reach through the screen and to the time of my grandparents to save them. So when I use those words I do not want to ever disrespect those before me that have truly suffered for breathing. I don't pretend to know all the ins and out of the current anti-immigrant movement in this country. I know only what little is reported. Below the jump is the experience that up until now I was frightened to write about.
With tears glistening in his eye my husband stared at his passport and whispered, "I didn't know this would affect me so much."
It was a long convoluted journey that ended with a simple solution..........................
In the 1960's there was much confusion and much going on. His mother had decided to go north. She found work in Canada and started to settle in. Typical thing girl meets boy, boy pulls a move that ends up leaving girl single mother. (A little more complicated than that but that is too personal here.) After a failed second relationship the now single mother of 2 boys came home. Taking the bus she moved to the Washington coast. Years later found a young boy picking up his social security card in St. Louis and life moves on.
Fast forward to the late 90's and my husband was working at a college where he was attending. A notice came. His second year Pell Grant was denied. No proof of citizenship. Now my husband had his child social security card, he had been in and out of the child foster, boys home system. No proof of citizenship????? He calls the social security office, this is where the FASFA gets citizenship information. They need a form from 30 some odd years ago. A form that from either a (the story changes from the mil) his mother didn't know she needed, or b. she couldn't afford.
Now my husband had a friend who worked for the IRS. That friend looked up his information. That friend learns that he was considered a citizen by the IRS. The social security office wasn't telling him how to fix the situation. They told him to call State Department. State Department wasn't much help at the time so he called his US Representative. The rep looked into it and after a few months he got back to my husband that they had the social security record looked at and a box was left empty. That was it. For love of God this mess for a box. Spinning his wheels trying to get this fix months passed and he gave up. He was put on leave from work because he "wasn't a citizen" the situation was used by an enemy to screw with him. He got his work back after he pointed out that he passed the I-9. He just couldn't go to school. Stuck spinning his wheels.
Early 1999 found a great irony. See he had been spinning his wheels not getting answer for a while now. The irony is he started working for the Department of Education. Yes the people who would not allow him to have a loan to better himself hired him with a clear I-9. This is where I come into the picture.
No problems with his citizenship on the I-9 he manages to work. In 2004 came our daughter. I was working a SRS program at the college. I had snagged his coat. What I didn't know was he had his wallet in it. I get to the college and notice it finally. Shrugging I put the coat where we "trash" SRS people put them. I come back and the wallet is gone. I didn't understand why my husband was so upset besides the sentimental value of a 20 year old wallet. This is where I learned why. His social security card was in it. I am like so, they gave you one before they will send you another. No they didn't. So with some finagling we managed without the card. 2007 came.
We found ourselves with a future in 2007, see while pregnant with my daughter my husband managed to get computer training through the WIA program. He was working a fantastic job. They were gearing him to middle management and he was wanting to help push the action by picking up an AA for IT. I decided unlike most, I am stubborn and will not take no for an answer. I start calling to see what could help get this citizenship thing fixed. I call social security, they said a passport could be proof. Ok so I call State Department, they tell me that without the report abroad that they would have to research it for money (that was the first time I talked to them) they told me to call INS. So I call INS they said that they could fix it by paying about 600 dollars for this form, then I would have to have a notarized letter from the doctor from the birth, (ummm 1966 they guy has to be dead and how would he remember if alive?) He would have to have a witness of his birth as well. There was much more to the list but those two where the stupidest to me. Without that they said they could just naturalize him for this amount of fees and stuff. My husband was pissed. He would quote the law that made him a citizen to me and tell me damn it I am a citizen. I told the INS that and then they told me to go to the State Department, Bounced around and around. Dennis Moore's office tried to help to no avail. Now it was recommended that we got an immigration lawyer. We couldn't afford it, my husband said to let it drop. That we do not want to get on anyone's radar.
So I let it drop until March of this year. My husband was upset that his has been standing still and that we need to find a way for him to go to school so we can move forward. With a sigh I start all over again. A passport would work they kept saying. So I went and called the State Department. I get a supervisor quickly and she was on the ball. Leaving me on hold for about a half hour. When she came back she gave me the exact steps to do. I followed them completely. (Why the hell did they send us around for so many years???????????)
I ordered the birth certificate that had his mothers name, and wonderfully didn't have his fathers name because well that would of put yet another nationality into the mix (his father was Portuguese). It never showed up. So yet again my husband is fearful and exhausted. Finally I ended up paying extra money we couldn't afford to get the stupid thing expressed mailed in June. It showed up over night. The next step was to get his mother to fill out a form that listed EVERYWHERE SHE LIVED since she was born. My mother in law took about 2 weeks to get this done and notarized. Armed with this we borrowed a bit of money from a wonderful friend who couldn't afford it (and who I have to figure out how to pay back so they can pay bills). We brought my mil's birth certificate, her form, our form, and everything normal people need. Since we needed it before a certain date for aid we had to rush it. There was confusion at the post office but a supervisor has seen it before so he fixed the whole thing. Off it went.
Though the website had a week delay in information we hit it everyday. My husband who already had pain in his chest, was stressing. Worried that this wasn't right, it was too easy, it was not what we were told for years. He was afraid they would show up at his work, every knock on the door was INS. We even made plans on how to get him up to Canada with the kids. On how to get me the PR status up there if we had to.
Here is a rightful citizen of this country afraid.
When I opened the mailbox and felt that hard object inside an envelope from the government I almost squealed. I had run up to his side of the car shoving it through the window. I kept chanting open it, it is hard, open it, it is hard. His hands were shaking still not believing it. He dropped the letter a few times until he fumbled it open to see his Passport Card. There in his hands was this simple thing that proves who he was. No more worry that he voted and would be arrested for doing so, no more fear of losing jobs, no more fear of deportation. There on that beautiful thing was written Citizenship, USA.
Our story turned out. I can write about it and if anyone who thinks hey ..... We just flash that little card........ What happens to the others, the others who actually think that the Statue of Liberty welcomes them. This nightmare went on for a citizen that the Statue stands for, what nightmares go one for the ones who wants to be a part of us, what fear do they have?