95 year old WWII Vet finds out he's not US citizen, threatened with deportation

[ck4829]

Ninety-five-year-old Leeland Davidson discovered recently that he's not 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.

Davidson was born in British Columbia in 1916. He checked up on his citizenship before joining the Navy and was told by an inspector at the U.S. Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service he had nothing to worry about. Now he worries that he won't be able to prove his citizenship, because his parents were born in Iowa before local governments started keeping records of birth certificates in 1880. "I want it squared away before I pass away," he says.

His daughter says they tried to dissuade him from pursuing the matter. Employees at the local passport office scared them, telling her father "If he pursued it, (he could) possibly be deported or at risk of losing Social Security."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110324/us_yblog_thelookout/wwii-vet-discovers-hes-not-a-u-s-citizen

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. If he was born in Canada, why does he need enhanced US drivers license to go there? n/t

[Kennah]

2. And if they deport him to Canada, he won't need the Enhanced Driver's License to get there

A couple of real Catch-22s

[angstlessk]

4. You don't need an enhanced license to go TO Canada...you need one to get BACK

to Amerika!...

[RandySF]

3. To be honest, I would love to be deported to Canada

[SoCalDem]

5. Me too:)

[Systematic Chaos]

6. Go ahead, assholes, and do this elderly gentleman a favor.

n/t