Friday, March 25, 2011

Say WHAT?

WWII vet discovers he’s not a U.S. citizen

Ninety-five-year-old Leeland Davidson discovered recently that he's not considered a U.S. citizen, despite living nearly 100 years in the country and serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII.

Davidson, from Centralia, Washington, told KOMO News that he discovered he wasn't a U.S. citizen when he was turned down for an enhanced driver's license he needed for a trip to Canada to visit relatives.

It seems that it's a bureaucratic snafu compounded by the longevity of the person in question - basically, his parents were born before birth certificates were kept, so there was no technical proof that his parents were American citizens. Since he was born on foreign soil, he's technically a Canadian citizen. As far as the claims that he was threatened with deportation, I certainly hope that's someone's idea of a joke (along the lines of, "Oh, you better be careful, Lee, or they're gonna deport you to Canada!").

It takes a Federal government to screw things up so bad that a veteran of a war some 65+ years ago can't even get a passport...

That is all.

5 comments:

Weer'd Beard said...

He should run for President!

Old NFO said...

That is just F'ed up...

TinCan Assassin said...

I had an interesting reaction to that one over at my place, too.
I knew your Rage-o-meter would peg even though I'm accross the country...

http://ninepoundsledge.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-need-to-borrow-jaygs-rage-o-meter.html

Sabra said...

Something similar is a fairly large problem in Texas. Apparently, way back when, a lot of people were delivered by midwives. No big deal, but for their inability to issue birth certificates. Of course, used to be you didn't need a birth certificate for most stuff, so these folks made it to old age before encountering a single problem, and of course there's now no way for them to get one. I have a family friend who has been encountering some problems due to her lack of a birth certificate.

On a personal level, a whole big chunk of my family has been unable to prove our tribal citizenship because my paternal grandmother wasn't issued a birth certificate when she was born on the rez back in the '20s.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Jay, this story is just a symptom about ICE and Homeland Insecurity being idiots. Look up the one about the new Super Dooper Survelliance Center that is monitoring all the illegals coming across the St.Clair river in Detroit! Meanwhile, as all the locals and tourists cross over the river every day to go to the Casinos and the car plants, yet there's not enough manpower to watch the Rio Grande....I guess the Canadian Army is going to lauch that Amphibious Assault any second now!