I've Just Become An Undocumented Immigrant


I just told my American friends not to be surprised if they see me featured on Vox on Youtube in the near future, as another American deported by ICE.  This is a possible scenario for me but I hope the chance of this happening to me is zero.  If only ICE knocks on my door now and demands me to present proof of my legal stay in the USA, I have nothing to show. At this moment, I have no valid visa, I have no green card, I have no certificate of naturalization.  I only have a valid passport issued by my native country that I haven't used to travel out of the USA and that is blank. This passport only proves that I'm a citizen of my native country and it will be handy should I be deported by ICE.  I don't mind the deportation at all just I don't want to be in the detention center since I hear all this horrible stories about jails in USA.

My initial visa stamp to enter the USA as a professional worker  was on this passport that expired a year ago and was taken away by my native country's embassy when I went in to apply for a new passport.  I had been carrying a green card for years so I wouldn't need any more work visa stamp on my native passport anyway.  When I applied to become citizen of the USA recently, USCIS took away my green card because they told me as a citizen, I no longer needed  a green card and they gave me a certificate of naturalization.  Yesterday, I went to the post office to apply for a U.S. passport, they took my original certificate of naturalization despite the fact that I made copies for them.  It's the law and the law must be followed. I get it. But why is there such a stupid law that requires submission of the original certificate of naturalization and the court approved name change document when I went in-person for the application?  What backward procedure is this?  I'm saying this is backward because I had never been asked to submit my original birth certificate when I applied for  passport with my native country.  When I went in-person to apply passport in my native country, they scanned my finger prints, they took my application form and money, they inspected my original documents that I presented with my copies of them, then they took the copies of my ID and birth certificate and they scanned my eyes, and took my photo through their computer. Wala, that was done within 30 minutes of my arrival at the appointment and they gave me my new passport right there without having to take my original birth certificate and citizenship ID.

Now with the USA, they took my original proof of my citizenship with my name change court approval. At this very moment,  while I claim I am this person in this name,  have nothing to prove it.  What a situation!  But then there is no eye scan and no finger prints scan during an application of a U.S. passport, so I can see how the state department will have really nothing to match my identity if the post office staff doesn't send them my original proof of citizenship.  But why doesn't the USA have better procedure like other first world developed countries?  Is this really the Banana Republic that my American boss said the USA is becoming?  No wonder Donald Trump said the USA was like a third world country.  In the process of passport service for the citizens, I think it is like a third world country.  I paid extra for the expedite service because unlike my native country, the USA takes 2-3 weeks to process a passport application.  I can't imagine living anywhere in the world for 2-3 weeks without the ability to travel within a moment's notice. I had never done it and I will not want to live in such restriction. Why does it cost more for Americans to get a passport at a much slower speed than citizens in other developed countries?  Now good luck with President Trump for trying to bring back jobs.  

I guess I just have to wait now to get back my original certificate of naturalization, hoping that the wonderful and efficient USPS will not lose my mail or mistakenly put my mail in my neighbor's mail box, like they did so many times before.  Yes, there are a lot of great workers at USPS, but their system is not one that encourage the hire of competent employees, as anyone who has the pleasure to visit the post office has witnessed.  Oh well, there is nothing I can do.  I can still travel using my native country's passport, I guess, in case of emergency with my family back home?  But returning to my home here in the USA  will be a problem since I don't have my U.S. passport yet.  I guess I would have to visit the U.S. embassy in my native country before I return?  Oh, well, I probably and thinking too much since what is the odds that something urgent will happen with my family back home that I need to fly out of the USA within a week? What can I do, I did what I could do to get my U.S. passport the fastest way, by paying extra, now it's not my fault that I'm totally undocumented as an American. Yes, it's totally possible to be an American and still be undocumented. It sounds like a joke but it's real and it's not funny.  This is one aspect about the USA that I never expected before I came here.

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