We all know that the Trump Administration loathes immigrants, at least any not from Europe or not Christian. But once upon a time I thought that naturalized citizens once sworn in were treated in the same way as all other citizens. No more apparently.
This article about a naturalized citizen who suddenly wasn't appeared in today’s Seattle Times in an article by Danny Westneat. The facts stated here are as they appear in the article.
Ruben Van Kempner is a theater director of Dutch-Indonesian heritage who came here as a child in 1962 at age ten and was sworn in as a naturalized US citizen in 1982. The naturalization certificate was issued by the United States District Court in Seattle. He worked a full life here and at the proper time applied for his Social Security and Medicare benefits. During his working life, Social Security periodically sent him notices as to the growing value of his account. Should have been a snooze.
However, the Social Security Administration informed him that they could not verify with DHS the naturalization certificate he produced, and thus had no proof he was a lawfully admitted alien or entitled to work in the United States, and could not process his application until he provided them with proof that he was lawfully within the United States and lawfully entitled to work here.
The consequence of want of legal work status, of course, is that Social Security and Medicare or any other government benefits although paid for are not available.
A personal visit with original paperwork including the naturalization certificate to the Social Security Offices did not change that result. Inquiry of DHS was made to no effect. No notice of “oops, clerical error”, has appeared. And the reporter was told that DHS and SS did not comment on individual cases. SS has a reputation for dangerous clerical errors such as determination that living SS beneficiaries are in fact not alive after all, but I am not aware that INS, now DHS has any reputation for the same problems with naturalization certificates.
The consequences of their treating him not as a citizen at all but as a thusfar insufficiently documented alien present in the United States are substantial. Deportation is possible for aliens who improperly apply for government program benefits like Social Security pension payments or Medicare, only available to those lawfully present and able to work here lawfully. And if DHS declines to verify a naturalization certificate, the possibility of a claim that the one he presented to SS is a forgery is also presented, with legal consequences to follow Suddenly a citizen is in utter limbo as to a matter of which there should never have been doubt where US records are concerned.
Van Kempner is a sophisticated person who has most likely engaged counsel and another but related visit to the US District Court in Seattle may well be in the offing, and he got his story into the state’s largest newspaper, but even the pendency of this situation unresolved complicates his life. He has to pay $625 a month for the medical insurance which substitutes for Medicare until it is resolved and will never get that back. He believes he dare not travel abroad because they might not let him back in if he does. This matter in its unresolved state may also be one which he is bound to disclose in other contexts until it is resolved. And he is wondering if they did this to him because they are suspicious of his Indonesian heritage. Indonesia is the world’s largest majority Muslim country.
This is in the worst way not supposed to happen to American Citizens who did everything right.
But Trump has ordered strict application of laws against aliens, and it seems that naturalization may not change that, and that, perhaps, now we have two classes of citizens, and only the natural born citizen is safe, assuming of course that Trump World will accept state short form birth certificates and passport documents, and the Republicans do not push through a Constitutonal Amendment changing Amendment 14 to eliminate birthright citizenship. Those who are only naturalized citizens may now be in position to have their status challenged or denied at any time by DHS or those checking with it, and to be treated as illegitimate until the matter is resolved.
(Full Disclosure: After the Arizona pullover and ”Papers Pleas”: laws were passed, and especially after CBP began operating nationwide rather than only a hundred miles from a border, I obtained and routinely carry on my person the Passport Card demonstrating US citizenship, which the Passport Office uses for people travelling to and from Canada and certain Caribbean areas, but which is not applicable world wide. I also have the pamphlet safe among important papers at home.) .