Kids born outside of hospitals (in US) have trouble establishing identity

[Liberal_in_LA]

No papers -- and little hope of advancement

People in their late teens or early 20s are seeking help establishing their identities from a nonprofit law firm. Without documents, they cannot open a bank account, obtain a job or enroll in college.

At 18, Jamal King was sent by the child welfare system into adulthood without a single form of identification: no driver's license, no Social Security card. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / March 19, 2009)

Many days, Jamal King stands at South Vermont Avenue and West 46th Street in South Los Angeles, his muscled arms covered with tattoos flaunting his membership in the Rolling 40s, a drug-running criminal gang.

His former foster father often drives past slowly, wagging his finger.

"I know people look at me and just see a gangbanger," King said. "It's not really who I am. It's just temporary."

But King's hope for a better life is hobbled by more than poverty and his surroundings -- he lacks a birth certificate.

He was born in a car 20 years ago as his mother tried to get to a hospital. By age 2, he was being raised by Los Angeles County's child welfare system. At 18, he was sent by the system into adulthood without a single form of identification: no driver's license, no Social Security card, no way to prove who he was.

Unable to qualify for even an individual taxpayer identification number, he has less ability to navigate through society than an illegal immigrant. He can't open a bank account, obtain a job, receive government benefits, enroll in higher education.

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-nopapers23-2009aug23,0,1049440.story

[Kerrytravelers]

1. But according to the rw nutters in this country, this kid is just lazy.

:eyes:

[imdjh]

2. I smell a Trojan Horse.

[HopeHoops]

3. This is just fucking silly.

My three were all born at home and there's absolutely no problem getting a birth certificate or social security card.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. But you, the parent, made sure it happened. Seems like lack of parental involvement is the problem

"No birth certificate was automatically generated, and their parents never filed for one. "

[HopeHoops]

5. The midwife filed for the birth certificates.

Parental failure of responsibility is a completely unrelated issue.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Jamal was born in a car, the other girl was born in a hotel room. No midwife

[Quantess]

15. I was born at home in the 1970s, no midwife present.

And yet, I have had a birth certificate since a few days after I was born. How difficult could it be?

[Bluerthanblue]

20. how could they be entered into the Foster Care system otherwise??

If he didn't have one before he entered, I can't believe they'd have just continued to leave that gap- He'd need to be registered with SS for any tax credits and the Foster Parents returns- this just doesn't add up.

[imdjh]

22. I'll bet 50¢ this isn't about Jamal........

It's about wanting to issue a birth certificate, ie US citizenship, to anyone under 21 who asks for it. That's my guess here.

[SoCalDem]

11. especially if this kid was "in the system".. there HAD to be I.D. for him

there will always be the "very very very few" who somehow do not fit the norm, but to elevate them to a position where people are supposed to think there are a LOT of them, is the ultimate strawman..

At some point, a school would have insisted on ID.. ..

this is a very disingenuous article..straight the "getting pregnant from a toilet seat" Fairy Tale Book

[Odin2005]

7. What the Hell? how could you NOT have a birth certificate in this day and age?

:wow:

[noamnety]

8. I can understand being in that position.

I don't understand how you could survive it.

I just had to deliver my daughter's to her after her wallet was stolen so she could get a new license. She was born overseas (US citizen - don't tell the freepers). If I'd died though or given her up for adoption or she was confiscated and brought up as a foster child, I don't know how she'd get a new one. She'd have to deal with trying to figure out what hospital she was born in, in a country where she doesn't speak the language, I wouldn't know where to start. I don't understand how birth certificates even get sent out if you've had your ID stolen ... how do you prove they should mail it to you when you need it to prove your identity in the first place?

[Obamanaut]

9. A replacement for a lost driver license is not all that hard to do. To

get birth certificate there is this site, with clickable links to all the states plus overseas http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm. - this site gives info for birth, death, marriage, divorce.

Took less than a minute w/ google, started with 'replacement birth certificate'

Stuff gets lost and stolen. People survive it. Really.

[noamnety]

10. I clicked your link

saw no entry at all for Germany, where my daughter was born. How would that help us?

[Obamanaut]

16. Did you check the entries in the 'F' section - 'Foreign and High Seas

Events'? The point of my post was that things can be found. Now, all together - Breathe in, exhale. Repeat as needed.

If you have a computer available, there are various search engines you might use as well.

Again now. Breathe in, exhale, repeat

[nini]

12. The L.A. county welfare dept requires SSNs for kids in the program

If anyone applies for assistance they need to have SSNs for any dependents to get it. So, the system itself doesn't follow that rule if a child is put the foster care? This is ridiculous.

[Bluerthanblue]

13. how could he recieve medicaid, or foster services w/o a SSN?

If he's been in the system, he has identification.

You can't recieve services without it. WIC, Food Stamps, TANF any of these services.

I don't understand?

Is California THAT different than the rest of the US?

[Trillo]

14. It would seem the existence of a "birth certificate"

is another phenomenon of corporatism, judging by the timeline. In the old days, as little as a 150 years ago, births were lucky to have occurred in a hospital, or so I've been led to believe.

Perhaps official forms of identity have dehumanized all of us, but lacking that identity dehumanizes even more. Something certainly seems wrong with that generalized picture, for surely this dude is human, but if this article has any truth, the The Machine is certainly dehumanizing and denying him.

It's like we're marked and tagged the way a piece of property would expect to be, but we all know that only enslaved folks are forced to hard labor.

Maybe that's why some of us treat our pets so much like a human family member and give them a life of love and kindness, as much as we can. Perhaps it's a way of projecting our own desires for a human civilization in the only way we're allowed by The Machine.

[Book Lover]

17. +1

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. I knew a woman who was born in 1901 in Indian Territory.

Which is now Oklahoma. She was the youngest of 11 children born to Scandinavian immigrants in a sod house.

She had to get affidavits from two people who remembered her birth and swore to it, in order to get a birth certificate from Oklahoma in the 1960s so she could get Social Security.

She was also the only person I ever knew who had had smallpox.


:wtf:

[AngryAmish]

18. Kids born outside of hospitals have bigger problems: Their loony parents

Sure some kids are born by mistake, but what about the nutter homebirthers?

[Bluerthanblue]

19. nothing nutty about them-

people who give birth at home by decision, usually don't have any problem getting a certificate of birth.

Kids can't register for school, play little league without a birth certificate-

Head Start requires a BC as well. My 26yr old had to have a BC for both his participation in our town's little league, and when he started Head Start.


:shrug:

[Hippo_Tron]

23. They should just call Orly Taitz and get a Kenyan Birth Certificate

I kid I kid...