A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world destructdisc @lemmy.world 3d ago

Could You Prove You’re a US Citizen?

nymag.com Could You Prove You’re a Citizen?

For Americans wrongfully detained by ICE, it can be nearly impossible to escape.

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I've needed to email my birth certificate a few times, so I could probably find it in my emails.
You can tell the guards there that you’re a citizen, but they’ll likely respond with some version of “tell it to the judge.” Your immigration-court appearance could be weeks, or even months, away. You will wait behind bars. There’s no right to counsel in immigration court — if you can’t afford a lawyer, you’ll have to represent yourself. When you finally see the inside of a courtroom, it could be what ICE calls a “mass removal” hearing with dozens of other defendants. You won’t have a chance to talk to a judge.

Holy fucking shit. The injustice in this would cause me have a violent meltdown.
- “Would?” This is what’s happening.
  
  I meant if I was the affected person
There's only one form of ID ICE cares about:
- I can't wait to get deported (I'm brown) while my son, who is white as fuck (but technically Latino) stays behind. 🫡
Depends on how much due process they’re willing to allow.

I’m very white, so that’s something.

I almost always have my drivers license on me, that should be worth something. However I’m pretty sure my state gives out licenses regardless of immigration status. Also, while I paid for RealID, I didn’t get it

In case due process and constitutional rights were allowed, I have a passport and may be able to dig up a birth certificate. You can’t really do any better although I believe they’re already ignoring that
- always have my drivers license on me, that should be worth something
  
  https://archive.is/b5YF2
How can you do anything if you're detained by ICE? If you have your birth certificate or passport in a safety deposit box you can't access it when you are detained.
- There was a guy who had his US passport card on him. ICE still detained him, claiming it was fake. And they're desperately trying to get rid of due process, so there's no opportunity to correct them.
  
  if they have done it to one person then they are not “trying” to get rid of due process, it’s already gone. :(
- Start shooting. You were already dead when they decided to target you.
  
  Maybe without basic rights but not dead
- And if there's no more birthright citizenship, how will any of that help anyway?
  
  At some point very soon, I see everyone having to appear before some official, fill out pages of forms, pay a fee, and take an oath in order to be registered as a citizen.
  
  Only American citizens are able to hold a passport so that would be a way to prove it. In fact, for most people, your passport is easily the most valid form of government ID that you can get.
No. I can't. And probably neither can most of us. That's part of the plan. Anybody among us could be disappeared into the gulags.
Nah, I don’t even live there
Can’t do any better than my birth certificate.

If that’s no good then no
- That didn’t even work for a President.
- That doesn't always work either.
I have all my various types of IDs going back to high school. State, student, passports, two birth certs, name change paperwork, old and new social security card. I've got so many ways to prove my identity. They'd probably just steal my shit and lose it then say I must be lying
- They'd be suspicious of you having so many forms of ID, they'd call them fake and fist bump each other
- They wouldn't even go that far. They'd just say it's all fake. No need to take it.
yeah but why would you want to? talk about embarassing
- Now that I'm no longer in the US, I'm so glad I can claim heritage to a third country (I was born there). I will never ever introduce myself as an American. If anything I refer to the state I came from since there is a lot of good there, but fascism is trying to drown it.
Squirrel
Probably but that’s because I’m privileged to have a space secure enough to store the magic documents that mean I’m allowed to occupy the volume required for me.

Nations are dumb and imaginary.
- And when ICE says your passport or birth certificate is fake and they confiscate it?
  
  I’ll guess I’ll die.
  
  Magic isn’t real and you shouldn’t expect it to protect you.
I could pretend I like guns and don't know what a meter is. Would that be enough?
- You mean like a parking meter?
Thankfully not.
Nein
- Auch nein.
  
  Moi, non.
Probably not without a ton of money and the willingness to pretend to be one...
No
Could you really prove anything, reality is relative and all.
I'd rather tell them to get fucked. Though, not sure if have the stones.

46 comments