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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMaria Soto Was Born in the U.S., yet the Trump Administration Won't Give Her a Passport. We're Suing
https://aclu-or.org/en/news/maria-soto-was-born-us-yet-trump-administration-wont-give-her-passport-were-suing?fbclid=IwAR2xtCJgdsHnuikN3us6Ao-7gEqJIPMJBjfzoKt0hFUOm4PsYMFnKK4eq-IMaria Soto Was Born in the U.S., yet the Trump Administration Won't Give Her a Passport. We're Suing.
By Leland Baxter-Neal, Staff Attorney
August 27, 2019 - 4:45pm
And yet the government refuses to give her a passport, telling her that her birth certificate and other documentation she has submitted is insufficient.
We are suing on Marias behalf because the government unjustly denied her a U.S. passport. Today we filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State, demanding that she be provided her passport just as any other citizen.
Marias parents were migrant workers. They took her to Mexico as a baby to be cared for by her grandparents. Growing up, she always knew she was a United States citizen. She regularly returned to the United States to visit family, showing her original birth certificate each time she crossed the border.
When Maria turned 18, she returned to the United States and settled in southern Oregon. She soon sponsored her husband for his green cardan immigration process that required that she prove her citizenship to the federal government. She would prove her citizenship to the federal government two more times, submitting immigration petitions for her mother and her brother.
In 2018, Maria and her husband hoped to travel to Peru for vacation, so she applied for her passport like anyone would. She sent in her original birth certificate, along with a certified copy issued by the State of California, and other documentation, including her drivers license, social security card, a letter from her school in Mexico, and medical records.
In response, the government denied her application, sending her a letter telling her that she had submitted insufficient evidence to prove her U.S. citizenship.
Cases like Marias appear to be occurring more frequently. Last summer, the Trump administration created a Denaturalization Task Force to attempt to strip some naturalized citizens of their citizenship, and the Washington Post reported on a surge of passport denials for Latino Americans who were born along the border. And just last week, President Trump again told reporters he was investigating whether he could issue an Executive Order ending birthright citizenship as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. ( Spoiler alert: he cant.)
Across America, Latinx communities are facing unprecedented levels of harassment and discrimination. Behind the racist rhetoric coming from the White House is the insidious message that people like Mariapeople of color, people who speak a second language, people who come from immigrant families or communitiesare not equals in our country or are somehow less American.
Maria is a citizen, but in the eyes of the Trump administration, her birth certificate is not enough. Her social security card is not enough. The fact that she has already proven her citizenship to the federal government in immigration applicationsnot once, not twice but three timesis not enough.
They are wrong. Maria is a citizen and is owed her passport, plain and simple, and we are suing to make sure she receives it.
TeamPooka
(24,229 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)and she was very likely "undocumented"-- probably entered the US and took up residence unofficially.
Maybe they should get their citizenship pulled.
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)Ilsa
(61,695 posts)Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)A) If so, that also shows she's recognized as a citizen and, thus, eligible for a U.S. passport, ironically voter ID in reverse; and
B) She can, and hopefully will, use her power of the vote on November 3, 2020.
Exactly what will it take to prove her citizenship beyond what Maria has already provided? What does the Chump administration expect her to come up with?.
She's probably more legit than Chump's parents, wife, and in-laws.
treestar
(82,383 posts)A certified copy of my birth certificate and nothing else. This is an outrage. I am glad they are suing.
George II
(67,782 posts)....about his grandfather being a criminal and being deported to the United States from Bavaria.
LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)I would like to see a Trumpanzee beat that
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)Updated Aug 27, 6:43 PM
Posted Aug 27, 6:41 PM
By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
An Oregon woman is suing the U.S. State Department for twice declining to issue her a U.S. passport even though her lawyer says she presented federal government officials with a certified birth certificate from a Los Angeles County hospital.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon filed the suit Tuesday in federal court in Medford on behalf of Maria Qarrillo Soto, 48, who has lived in Oregon for 30 years. The lawsuit follows a similar complaint the ACLU filed in federal court in Colorado earlier this month on behalf of a Texas-born resident who also was denied a U.S. passport ...
Soto was born in Los Angeles County Hospital in April 1971 to her migrant parents from Mexico, father Felix Carrillo Arrellano and mother Guadalupe Barjaas Macias, according to the suit. At the time of her birth, her last name was misspelled on her birth certificate as Qarrillo, not Carillo ...
Soto returned to live in the United States in 1989 at age 18, settling in Klamath Falls, Oregon. That year, she married Jose Alfredo Soto Toriz. In 1990, she petitioned for an immigrant visa for her husband as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, presenting proof to the government of her citizenship. The petition was approved and her husband was granted residency in 1995 ...
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2019/08/oregon-woman-with-california-birth-certificate-sues-state-department-for-denying-her-a-us-passport.html