Perspective | A doctor tried to renew his passport. Now he’s no longer a citizen.
www.washingtonpost.com
A Northern Virginia doctor was born in D.C. and given a U.S. birth certificate. At 61, he learned his citizenship was granted by mistake.

The Northern Virginia doctor knows at least that much about his situation. He knows he is no longer considered a citizen of the United States — the place where he was born, went to school and has practiced medicine for more than 30 years — and that he also belongs to no other place.

A letter from a State Department official informed him that he should not have been granted citizenship at the time of his birth because his father was a diplomat with the Embassy of Iran. The letter directed Sobhani to a website where he could apply for lawful permanent residence.

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
    1·
    10 months ago

    I mean, even making people in this situation go through the same hoops as regular immigrants is not applying the same amount of inconvenience to everyone, because you’d still be applying a bunch of inconvenience to all the immigrants that don’t apply to people who simply were born here (something which, I might add, people have absolutely no control over and so has no bearing on any reasonable notion of what they have and have not earned. Why do we have to inconvenience anyone in this manner?

    Personally, I think we should abolish the entire distinction of citizen/noncitizen. Limit border checkpoints to stations requiring one tell us who one is so that we know who’s here, let anyone move here as long as they agree to pay their taxes and be bound by our laws, and have the government treat anyone living here the same as they treat citizens now.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
      11·
      10 months ago

      This conversation is pointless. I suggest realistic and relatively minimal procedure to become a citizen (fill out the paperwork) and everyone’s “Nah, nah, nah…that’s too much”. Then I suggest that the other option is to just give them citizenship like a prize for going undetected (because in the end, there are people who will fit that bill, whether it be a statute of limitations or a lifetime of ignorance) and everyone’s like “Nah, Nah, we don’t mean that…”

      So nobody has a clue what they want to do except react negatively to my suggestions of non-punitive application for citizenship and immigration reform.

      Y’all are useless. Picking apart suggestions but offering nothing. I’m done here.