these 'kids' are not the only ones facing this problem. I was a nomad for
almost two decades. In that time, i had met many that were 'on the streets'
because of lack of "proper identification". Some were there of their own
choice, like myself. Some were there that had no business being there. Those
were the ones that had been forcibly evicted from their homes, or they had lost
their primary source of income, or they just 'were lost without no one to turn
to'. And now, in MOST States, if you cannot prove WHO you are, the local law
enforcement has the "authority" to place you under arrest. For the CRIME of no
id? I feel for these individuals, but, short of a COMPLETE change of the way
the 'huddled masses' think, we are in a downward spiral to a TOTAL 'documents
or you don't exist' system. These people, because of the lack of papers, are
not even counted on City, State, or Federal rolls. I can offer nothing for
them except to say that they are in the position to ACTIVELY change the system
by working 'under the table', learning trades through apprenticeships WITHOUT
government interference, and 'shortchanging the system' by NOT using FRN.
Kinda wish I was part of that group, the way things are going.
--- On Sun, 8/23/09, J. Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
From: J. Miller <[email protected]>
Subject: [CCCC-USA] The troubles of being a "natural-born" citizen
To:
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2009, 1:28 PM
Please feel free to forward this article to the people on your list.
http://www.latimes. com/news/ local/la- me-nopapers23- 2009aug23, 0,6491517.
story
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.
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next
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)
Related
Porschea Williams
By Garrett Therolf
August 23, 2009
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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.
"It's like I don't exist," King said. The only form of identification
recognized by authorities is his fingerprints. "In jail, they know exactly who
I am."
Not long ago, a state assemblyman wanted King to travel to Sacramento to
testify about a bill designed to help get papers for people in his position.
King couldn't make the trip. No one could figure out a way around
identification requirements at the airport.
King is among a small number of people in their late teens or early 20s who
have sought help establishing their identities from the Alliance for Children’s
Rights, a nonprofit law firm that works for abused and impoverished youths out
of a Wilshire Boulevard high-rise.
Those without basic papers, like King, were usually born outside of hospitals.
No birth certificate was automatically generated, and their parents never filed
for one.
State officials say it is difficult to know how many young people are affected.
At the alliance, managing attorney Lara Holtzman said her organization
typically hears about one new case a month.
"And these are just the kids who somehow find us," she said.
Eighteen-year- old Dominique Freeman of Los Angeles was born in a hotel room.
When she was 3 days old, the county began caring for her after her mother
tested positive for cocaine.
The county eventually placed her in the care of her maternal aunt, whom she
credits with keeping her focused in school and ambitious about her future. When
she was 16, Freeman wanted to pursue a summer job, but her aunt told her that
the absence of a birth certificate would prevent that.
"My aunt told me that the Department of Children and Family Services assured
her that they were going to do it for me," Freeman said. "My aunt said she
didn't know how to go about doing it because she was not the mother."
Last year, Freeman was forced to turn down a scholarship to Cal State
Northridge and delay her admission for one year while she waited for her
papers. Now she spends most of her days watching television in the home of
extended family members. Freeman said she feels cut off from the world.
"I have a lot of friends," she said, "but it's been hard because I can't work,
and I have no money and that means I can't go out with them."
With help from the alliance, she received her birth certificate this summer and
will be able to start school in the fall. But it's been a terrible year
waiting. Her aunt died shortly after she lost her scholarship, and she has
survived on the good graces of relatives who offer her small amounts of cash
and a temporary place to sleep.
In Panorama City, former foster child Sergio Romero, 18, also waits. Lacking
identification paperwork, Romero said, he cannot drive and doesn't qualify for
Native American benefits he believes he should be entitled to. He was born in a
hospital, and a birth certificate should have been issued, but it has
inexplicably disappeared.
In all of the cases, Holtzman said, her firm has struggled to find a way to
expedite paperwork with the state, and she fears the process will drag on for
up to a year. For a delayed birth certificate to be issued, each client must
convince a judge that they were born in the U.S. and then wait for the state to
issue a certificate.
In King's case, foster care officials and, later, juvenile probation officials
were long aware that he lacked basic identification documentation. Although
both agencies have procedures to obtain birth certificates for children before
they leave their systems, King was among an undetermined number who fell
through the cracks.
Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) is sponsoring AB270, a bill in
the state Legislature that would strengthen the mandates that no children leave
the system without basic documents. It is currently stalled because of the
state's budget problems.
"These situations offend our sensibilities because foster children are, in
essence, children of the state," De La Torre said. "We are being really
horrible parents in carrying out these basic aspects of preparing our young
people to be an adult."
In King's neighborhood just south of Exposition Park, job openings at fast-food
restaurants attract lines that wrap around the block. Men his age roam the
streets aimlessly, drinking beer as they ride their bicycles, crowding the
basketball courts for hours at Vermont Square Park.
King's final foster home is steps away from the corner where he now hangs out.
He was sent there at age 9, his 26th placement in seven years. Aubrey Manuel,
now 51, said he knew the young boy he was taking in had a violent temper.
King's outbursts against other children had led other foster parents to ask
that he be removed.
But Manuel refused to send him away, and he eventually found ways to help King
work through his anger.
"My mantra here is stability," Manuel said. "All of my children come from
multiple failed placements."
Manuel said that when King turned 12, he began pressing social workers in the
Department of Children and Family Services to file for his birth certificate.
"The answer," Manuel said, "was always: 'We're working on it.' "
At age 14, King committed a robbery that sent him into the county probation
system. Over the next few years, more violations kept him a ward of the
Probation Department for the rest of his childhood.
Records indicate that the department was aware he lacked a birth certificate,
but show no evidence of efforts to obtain one for him.
"You can imagine how difficult this problem would have been for a probation
officer with a caseload of 70 problematic kids, trying to file this all alone,"
said Jed Minoff, a probation official.
Manuel said his foster care licensing agreement required him to prohibit King
from staying in the house after he turned 18 because of his criminal past. He
regretfully turned King away.
King began to sleep on a small couch in a cramped backhouse across the street.
His friends there -- members of the Rolling 40s -- were themselves kicked out
of their families' homes or left behind when their parents moved away.
"All of the sudden, I look up and Jamal has all these gang tattoos," Manuel
recalled. "I said, 'What did you do?' He says, 'It's the only thing I got right
now.' It was just total desperation."
King describes gang life as oddly nurturing, and most people he passes on the
street nod in recognition as they step across his gang moniker spray-painted on
the sidewalk. The territory of the Rolling 40s and its allies, he said, is "so
large you couldn't walk a circle around it in an afternoon."
He is also mindful of his confinement and how much peril he is in. He has
dodged gunshots. "Those are my enemies," he said, pointing to men standing on a
corner two blocks away. "So that makes it a little dangerous to stand here."
Although he walks the streets with emblems of prosperity -- new Nikes, a flashy
smart phone -- it's not hard to see how poor he is. Despite the small payments
he said he receives from his patrons in the Rolling 40s -- "$5 here, $10 there"
-- he buys his cigarettes one at a time. He goes out of his way to avoid stores
charging 50 cents in favor of the store asking 35 cents.
"Somehow I eat every day," King said.
He has an on-again, off-again relationship with the mother of his 2-year-old
son, Jamal Jr., but he struggles to pay for the train ticket to Riverside to
see them. Meanwhile, he and his friends meet women by shouting "eh!" as they
drive down Vermont Avenue with open windows.
"We take care of ourselves," he said. "And sometimes a little girlfriend will
give me $5."
He sometimes gets offers of legitimate work, but with no Social Security number
or way to cash paychecks, he has to turn them down. "The lady next door wanted
me to take down her roof, but she was writing checks," he said.
A girlfriend wanted to move to Las Vegas and start a new life, but he didn't
want to go until his papers arrived. A friend's father offered a job installing
computer network wiring, but it too required identification.
King first asked the Alliance for Children's Rights for help last November. The
firm, after struggling to navigate a judicial maze, finally persuaded a Los
Angeles Superior Court judge to act last month. The judge, using statements
from King's aunt and grandmother, verified his birthplace and identity, and he
ordered state officials to issue him a birth certificate. King hopes to receive
it before his 21st birthday in September.
Until then, he lives with a short-term, day-to-day horizon. "I just try to live
in the present, come what may."
garrett.therolf@ latimes.com
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