Feds Revoke Citizenship at Border, Then Deny U.S. Nationality

Eduardo Saverin's costs to renounce US citizenship

FILM: The Cats of Mirikitani

BTC-- Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf took in homeless, elderly artist, Jimmy Mirikitani.

Mr. Sitomu Mirikitani is an internment camp survivor.  At the end of the war, he was asked to renounce his citizenship by the internment camp.  This is the story of what happened to him.

THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI- a film by Linda Hattendorf

 

“OBAMA: Stop Attacking Elderly U.S. Citizen Latinos in Texas”

"According to immigration attorney Jaime Diez, along the Rio Grande River in Texas, there are cases where Elderly Latinos have to relinquish their U.S. Citizenship because they cannot provide enough evidence to substantiate their birth on U.S. soil by either a hospital or a credible midwife."

E-Verify Violates American Citizens’ Privacy and Easily Leads to Massive Identity Theft

Texas ID measure passed quietly, while sanctuary cities bill died noisily

BTC UPDATE: 6:14 PM -- A tax based on newly proposed license requirements has been approved, an insider source disclosed. Newly added taxes have precipitated a late veto from Governor Perry in the past.

A 2nd Texas special session is being discussed around the capitol aimed at Governor Perry's unfinished business and the viscerally contested nature of SB 1's requirement for citizenship at Texas MVD windows.   It was also said that the intent to move identity demands forward on the part of Tommy Williams went beyond the norm.

A conferencing process to update or reconcile bills passing both chambers typically is the last administrative agreement on a legislation before moving a bill to the Governor's desk.  Williams was said to have plans to add citizenship requirements amendments post-conference; which was a process the source had doubts about based on legislative rules.

Other items discussed were a merger of motor voter rolls with database requirements.

Better Late than Never: Oregon's decision

"AZ Bill Requires Patients to Prove Citizenship Status"

Texas Two-Step: Can you prove you're a US citizen?

BTC  - This little tidbit came in from Daily Kos analysis of the Texas GOP platform.  It's endemic of how Texas does things.

Real Americans, but not Real Americans 
c/o Mark Sumner

You city slickers think you're so slick. And citied. But your mind can't hold up to a fast one-two punch delivered just... like this!

We propose that every Texas driver license shall indicate whether the driver is a U.S. citizen. No such documentation shall be issued to anyone not legally in the country.

Yessir, that'll stop those charges of racial discrimination. It won't be the color of your skin that matters, but the federal information stamped right there on your drivers license. (What happens if you have a drivers license from another state? Well, you're a foreigner by definition.) But here's the clever bit from another section of the platform.

As the Real ID Act effectively creates an unconstitutional and privacy-inhibiting national ID card, we hereby call for its immediate repeal.

See, the Real ID Act doesn't actually issue a national ID card. Instead it sets out rules so states can issue drivers licenses that can be used as federal ID. Like for proof of citizenship. The Texas GOP is against that. And for it. Remember: only weaklings turn to lawyers to sue for whiplash induced by contradicting policies.

Ironical, Ain't It?

Implementing Real ID benchmarks creates hassles for Mainers

BTC - Real ID, while declared dead at the federal level, is still complicating the lives and livelihoods of license holders in states like Maine, who are moving forward with incremental identification benchmarks in compliance with the federal law.

Adrienne Bennet for WBAI reports:

Real ID Causing Real Problems

In 2007, Maine was the first state in the nation to reject the federal real i-d act. Today, the state is complying with the federal law designed to make it harder for terrorists and illegal immigrants to get government-issued identification. However, it's proving to be a nightmare for some Mainers.

MICAS: A window into the black market for identity

BTC -  American identity is bought and sold every day and not just by online intel pirates, Facebook.

Identity is a turnkey to employment.  As long as you present a legal or legal looking identity, you should be able to get a job.  Long-term unresolved problems with immigration in America open up short-term underground markets.  The black market provides solutions for workers pooled around jobs requiring American identity.

The rub with Real ID laws, and other forms of proposed national ID, is there is no pathway to accommodate the specific problem of legitimizing migrant workforce identity.  National ID programs simultaneously create a surveillance dragnet for all American citizens possessing several forms of legitimate identity.

Those who want to solve the migrant identity problems often propose some form of guest worker card program.   Businesses who exploit migrant workforces, paying them below living wage, and fostering indentured servitude to coyotes for passage find ways to support and empower black markets.  Does a migrant identity solution require the fingerprinting of the citizen of another nation or of non-criminal American citizens?  Biometrics are destined for criminal justice databases.

AMERICAN IDENTITY BY IMMERSION

This SF Gate report gives you a window into the market place for migrant workers seeking what they need to work in America.  One reporter immersed herself in the experience.

"Like the Mexican immigrant who got her documents fraudulently, I felt out of place negotiating the price of an ID in the street, in broad daylight. The seller, on the other hand, seemed relaxed and friendly. We walk to a nearby passport photo shop. I pay ten bucks and get my mug shot. After two hours, I have a new identity."

:::MORE HERE:::

Citizen detained for not providing papers in AZ

c/o 4409

MESSAGE FROM 4409:

Do NOT be fooled by the... SB1070 Fact Sheet. It does not list all the details. You have to read the entire legislation.

This bill is NOT about immigration. If you think it is, they fooled you good. This is about expanding police powers to that of little dictators in police uniforms.

Now everyone who is stopped gets their information and data transmitted to [DHS] via your drivers license number or your social security number or your name. This was not allowed until this bill was passed. Now they can arrest and detain you for any public offense and run all you data through Homeland security.

Soon every state will be doing this under the guise of stopping illegals which it will not stop [undocumented aliens]. All that data will now be used to track you by the federal government. If you get a ticket in Maine, they know. If you get stopped and let go in Texas, they know. If they run your plates in Georgia, they know. This is the beginning of, "papers, please!".

9 Students Arrested in AZ SB 1070 protests

According to CopWatch AZ 

"Nine brave students chained themselves to the Az State Capitol on April 20, 2010 to send Gov. Brewer a message: VETO APARTHEID BILL SB 1070.  They were all arrested and hauled off to Sheriff Arpaio's jail.

They have called for Non-Violent Direct Action until the Governor veto the bill or 90 days until it becomes law. Major Boycotts are also being planned against Arizona if it passes like this Nation has never seen.

Arizona is becoming a Police State were any and everyone with brown skin will be required to show papers and avoid or turn in anyone they suspect of being undocumented. This could include those taking a relative to the hospital or church.

Lobbyists groups like FAIR that helped write the bill stand to make Millions off the Az Tax payers as they conveniently helped write it so racists can sue any town, city or agency they feel isn't enforcing this fascist law to their satisfaction.

Instead of dealing with the real causes of our border problems (NAFTA ) our racist Republican leadership wants to try more of the same like a crack addict who thinks all will be well if only he can have more. Senator Russell Pearce, the bills sponsor has been exposed as having ties with neo-Nazi and openly associates with hate groups. He used false data pulled mostly from anti immigrant websites most of which is easily proved to be false. "

SB 1070 : Arizona identity and immigrant policing bill goes for a vote

National Identity and Immigration Policing Bill crests in AZ Senate

PHOENIX - According to local sources, SB 1070 goes to the Senate Committee of the Whole for a vote today.  The bill currently includes the E-Verify program, creation of a misdemeanor offense for anyone who employs undocumented workers and arbitrary terry stops to evaluate citizenship.  There are provisions in the bill which call for the siezure of private property; such as impounding a car for transporting an undocumented immigrant. 

Those opposed to the bill are organizing their defense against a federal or national ID card and gun reporting requirements embedded in the bill.  Ernest Hancock plans to give an update on teh legislation's status on Liberty Radio available this afternoon.

Recent History c/o Freedom's Phoenix

• Sheriff Ralph Ogden of Yuma County Speaks Out on the Cost of SB 1070 http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/04/russell_pearce_hold_up_sheriff.php
   
• Russell Pearce's Falsehoods, Inaccuracies and Inventions on Channel 12's Sunday Square-Off http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/04/russell_pearces_falsehoods_ina.php
• Russell Pearce's SB1070: Welfare for Anti-Immigration Lawyers, Says Attorney David Selden http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/04/russell_pearces_sb1070_welfare.php

FLOGGER: Senator Graham’s Inexplicable National ID Support

National ID Bashing with Cato's

Jim Harper

Compromise is catnip in Washington, D.C. That’s my best guess at why Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would endorse New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D) widely reviled plan to create a mandatory biometric national ID system.

Schumer’s national ID plans have no more definition today than when he wrote about them in his 2007 campaign manifesto Postitively American. Among the thin gruel of that book is a two-page lump displaying more ignorance than understanding of how identity systems work and fail. Schumer doesn’t know the difference between an identifier—a characteristic used to distinguish or group people—and an identification card or system, which does the entire task of proving a person’s previously fixed identity. (My thin gruel on the topic is the book Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood.)

“All the national employment ID card will do is make forgery harder,” says Schumer.

No, that’s not all it would do: It would also subject every employment decision to the federal government’s approval. It would make surveillance of law-abiding citizens easier. It would allow the government to control access to health care. It would facilitate gun control. It would cost $100 billion dollars or more. It would draw bribery and corruption into the Social Security Administration. It would promote the development of sophisticated biometric identity fraud. How long should I go on?

Senator Graham’s take is equally simple: “We’ve all got Social Security cards,” he said to the Wall Street Journal. “They’re just easily tampered with. Make them tamper-proof. That’s all I’m saying.”

No, Senator, that’s not all you’re saying. You’re saying that native-born American citizens should be herded into Social Security Administration offices by the millions so they can have their biometrics collected in federal government databases. You’re saying that you’d like a system where working, traveling, going to the doctor, and using a credit card all depend on whether you can show your national ID. You’re saying that bigger government is the solution, not smaller government.

The point for these senators, of course, is not the substance. It’s the thrill they experience as nominal ideological opponents finding that they can agree on something, securing a potential breakthrough on the difficult immigration issue.

They’re only ”nominal” ideological opponents, though. Chuck Schumer has always been a big government guy—and long a supporter of having a national ID, despite the lessons of history. Lindsey Graham is not really his ideological opponent. Typical of politicians with years in Washington D.C., Graham is steadily migrating toward the big-government ideology that unites federal politicians and bureaucrats against the people.

France's national identity ennui

A senior Socialist deputy said the circumstances in which the debate was launched "shows that France is sick."

"National identity is not up to us to establish as a norm for us to conform to. National identity just happens. In a big sense, it is outside our control. It's not for any government to decide." - Emmanuelle Saada, a sociologist and historian at Columbia University and France's Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

"France does not have an identity problem," said Youth & Solidarity Minister Martin Hirsch, calling it a "100-percent political debate."

BTC - "Meh... Such is life." Did you expect anything different?

c/o CNS News
Paris (AP) - The Great Debate gets under way Wednesday, led off with a grand question: "For you, what does it mean to be French?"

This is neither a pompous academic exercise in France's elite schools nor a TV game show. It is the French government's effort to clarify -- with citizen participation -- the nation's values, increasingly fraught with tensions as customs brought in by immigrants, for instance, rub up against traditional French values.

France's immigration minister, Eric Besson, launched the national soul-searching, dubbed the Great Debate, earlier this month with a Web site where citizens can write about what they think it means to be French. Up to 32,000 contributions were posted in the first two weeks, according to the ministry.

On Wednesday, the first of hundreds of local debates that are planned over the next two months will take place, this one among officials of Montargis, south of Paris, and business leaders, members of associations as well as teachers and parents of students. Exceptionally, it is being held at the Immigration Ministry.

Talking points for the debates include French history, culture, religion or language. Ultimately, they are meant to address a handful of proposals such as the meaning of national symbols like the flag or whether youths should be obliged to sing the national anthem at least once a year -- and how to share values with immigrant citizens.

"France is a nation of tolerance and respect, but it also asks to be respected," President Nicolas Sarkozy told farmers in southeastern France earlier this month. One cannot reap the advantages of living in France "without respecting any of its laws, any of its values, any of its principles."

France is a nation of immigrants but, until recently, most newcomers hailed from other European countries. Now immigrants from elsewhere, notably Muslims from former French colonies, are part of the mix. With 5 million Muslims, France has western Europe's largest Muslim population.

The initiative is contentious. Rival Socialists equate the national identity debate with a political stunt meant in part to garner votes of the anti-immigration far-right National Front ahead of March regional elections. Intellectuals and philosophers are divided, as are many citizens, contending it will fan xenophobia and stigmatize nonwhite French.

Comments on the ministry's site reflect the diversity in viewpoints.

"When you see the number of racist ideas, full of resentment ... one has the right to question the pertinence of this debate which pits one French against the other," wrote someone identified as Hasard in a message posted Tuesday. "This debate is a formidable trigger for hate, jealousy, pretense."

Francois, born in the Paris region of Seine-Saint-Denis, with a large population with origins in sub-Saharan and Muslim North Africa, fears that "we will end up like the American Indians, a minority in our own country."

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, appears to have a clear vision of France's national identity -- or what it is not. In his recent speech, he took new aim at the face-covering, all-enveloping Islamic robe worn by a very small minority of Muslim women, saying there is "no place for the subservience of women" in France.

Debating the national identity "is not dangerous. It's necessary," Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy had vowed to bolster France's sense of national identity while campaigning for the presidency in 2007. He quickly created the Ministry of Immigration Ministry, Integration, National Identity and Co-Solidarity.

Some see the debate initiative as a reaction to a France whose citizens, and non-citizens, of immigrant origin are growing increasingly vocal, just as the singular French model of integration by which foreigners are expected to fully assimilate is weakening.

"I'm amazed at this debate. It's a political event (and) doesn't represent any deep need in society," said Emmanuelle Saada, a sociologist and historian at Columbia University and France's Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

"National identity is not up to us to establish as a norm for us to conform to," she said in a telephone interview. "National identity just happens. ... In a big sense, it is outside our control." And, she adds, "It's not for any government to decide."

The question, she said, is why the issue resonates with the public.

Hicham Kochman, a rapper known as Axiom, says the national identity debate is a diversion.

Axiom made his mark with a song 2006 song, "Ma Lettre au President," written to the tune of the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

"I think this debate hijacks the real problems," like unemployment and buying power, he said.

"The only values in France are liberty, equality, fraternity. ... Each time injustice gains ground, the values are weakened. For me, France isn't a country. It's an idea."

"Terrorist" label for asylum seekers in Real ID Act language

Prospective Real ID Act language for "Tier 3" asylum seekers may create hardship

BTC - Immigration relations in conjunction with the Real ID Act have proven beastly in the past. This report reflects on those who may suffer unintended labeling or consequences from Real ID's language.

For Human Rights First

::AUDIO REPORT HERE:::

The lives of thousands of refugees in the US are also in limbo. Human rights observers say changes to US immigration law within the PATRIOT Act and REAL ID Act have created an overly broad definition of terrorist - and now thousands of people fleeing repression and war-torn countries are being denied their applications for asylum, permanent residence, and family reunification.

Anwen Hughes is a researcher with Human Rights First.

"These include, for example, people who engaged in ordinary military activity against an opposing army, people who fought for the independence of countries that have now been independent for a long time, like Eritrea or Bangladesh, people who were fighting really awful regimes in their countries, people who had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, people who had fought to try to overthrow Saddam Hussein. In some cases people were doing these things with the support of the United States or at the behest of the United States.”

Hughes is the author of a new report on this issue. The data she collected shows some 18,000 refugees and asylum seekers affected by the broad definition of terrorism used by US immigration officials. Hughes said the statutory definition of this "Tier III terrorist organization" is any group of two or more people who have used a weapon for any unlawful purpose other than personal monetary gain. Hughes says Congress needs to act on this issue now.

"One of the small fixes would be to eliminate the immigration law concept of a non-designated, or Tier 3 as we’ve been calling it, terrorist organization because that has broadened the scope of this problem more than, basically, anything else. We also believe that the definition of terrorist activity under the immigration law is overwhelmingly broad and needs to be focused more so that it’s actually targeting the activities that the government means to target instead of targeting everybody else as well."

Some 7500 refugees and asylum seekers' have their cases currently on hold with the Department of Homeland Security. For those the US does deny or deport, Hughes says there's another indirect impact -- these people will have a much harder time getting refugee status in another country, after being labeled a "terrorist" by the United States. To read the full Human Rights First report click on the link to open the PDF document at: http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/RPP-DenialandDelay-FULL-111009-web.pdf

Mandated IDs and Consequence of Enumeration

While Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Bob Barr is vocal about his wishes to halt Real ID implementation, he added that keeping the welfare recipients from voting was on his list of priorities. The cognitive dissonance and conflicts between the two ideas are not necessarily obvious. Those affirming the latter, may slip a noose around their own necks if Real ID is given the go ahead for its disenfranchising power.

An enacted Real ID manifests not just as complete exposure of US citizen's privacy and identity keys or as an irrelevant immigration solution, but as a potent voter disenfranchisement tool. This Spring the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's demand for photo ID as a pre-requisite to vote.  If more states mimic this legislation, ID will predicate your right to vote.

Those at the bottom of the economic ladder, those booted unintentionally "off the grid" due to mental illness or due to imprisonment often do not have immediate access to their "breeder documents"- a birth certificate or Social Security card- qualifying them for ID.  As identity trends persist, more people without immediate access to key identity documents find themselves outside of resources. They may also find themselves outside of the law for failure to provide identity documents on demand for registration, probation or payment of fines.

In Michael Mechanic's, IDENTITY THEFT article, Mother Jones reports repercussions for those without access to proper identity documents.

FOR NEW PAROLEE'S hoping to stay out of prison for good, scoring public assistance is crucial.  But few consider this obstacle: "You can't get ID in this society anymore if you don't have ID,"  says Amy Blank, a researcher at Rutgers University.  "If you wanta birth certificate, you need a driver's license. If you want a driver's license, you have to have a birth certificate and a Social Security card.  And to get a Social Security card, you have to have a driver's license. It's this crazy cycle."

For those with proper ID, squarely on the right side of the law with financial ducks in a row, still more government mandated  hoop-jumping exercises are ahead.  Among the hotly opposed tenets of the Real ID Act is a mandate to submit citizenship documents to local DMV databases in order to receive a valid driver's license or ID.  In essence, the database will be a national catalog of identity documentation.  

The Consequences of Enumeration 

VIDEO: IBM & The Holocaust

 

Government cataloging or enumeration of a nation based on identity, may be used for profiling people groups based on aspects of race, religion, locale and consumer habits. Consequenses for enumeration are documented in Edwin Black's book, IBM & The Holocaust.