Immigration, Adoptees and The Identity Police: The REAL ID ACT of 2005/2025

REAL ISSUES FOR SOME ADOPTEES!

 

REGLOG FROM 2017 (UPDATED)

 

By Trace Hentz, Blog Editor

The Real ID ACT will be enacted in May 2025. 

 

                                                This is SATIRE👇: Obscenity warning

 

THIS IS REAL 👉 Most recently, Kristi was shilling the Real ID, which is “mandatory” for domestic air travel starting in May.

I am planning to NOT comply.   Go to RefuseRealID.org or read this summary.

In 2005, Congress passed an unconstitutional law requiring all American citizens to be issued a “National Identification card” (U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s words on the Senate floor) – a REAL ID.   Interesting how 2005 was the year of passing unconstitutional laws in the US, including the infamous PREP Act.  In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule requiring all states to conform to the unconstitutional federal law and issue REAL IDs for driver’s licenses and identification cards.

More than half of the states REFUSED this usurpation of states’ rights—25 states passed laws prohibiting compliance and 12 states passed resolutions opposing REAL ID.  Federal deadline after deadline passed with little state compliance.  

READ HER POST: https://open.substack.com/pub/sashalatypova/p/desperate-housewife-of-north-dakota?r=cbskx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

👇Back to 2017: 

Have you tried to get a driver's license recently?  I spoke to a cousin in Illinois who was not given a driver's license (renewal) but a piece of paper instead.  She is not adopted. The Illinois Motor Vehicles people told her they are doing a background check first then will mail it to her. (My cousin has lived in Illinois all her life and she is over 60.)
 

WHAT IS HAPPENING?
We have seen this coming. (I was worried in 2005 when I went to get a passport and had to mail them my fake birth certificate.)
In 2011, Leland Morrill wrote this Facebook post on his concerns about the lack of original birth certificates for many Native adoptees like him. Leland did not have a birth certificate but a Certificate of No Birth Record.
READ HERE 

It's back and on Amazon

Leland contributed to the book series Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects. In the first book TWO WORLDS he shared he had not found his mother or father and was adopted by Mormons.  In the second book CALLED HOME he found his mother's family.  In STOLEN GENERATIONS, the third book, he found and met all his clans and his father.

Each year for an adoptee, information can drip drip drip and finally come. It's not a fast process. Each piece of paper helps.
You have two parents and two family trees. Never give up hope of finding the paperwork and the people.

ALSO::: 

If you adopted a child, request their adoption file as soon as possible. If you signed these documents you have the right to have a certified copy of the adoption proceedings and court documents. You and your adopted child will need ALL this information, when they reach adulthood. If you adopted a child from another country, did you get them their US citizenship records? If not, they could be deported.  It is that serious.

If you do not have documentation of any kind, call the local FBI right now and explain your situation and remind them of the REAL ID ACT - and how it affects you as an adoptee.

Patient furious as health centre demands proof she's Indigenous

 Wabano Centre says new criteria needed to fight identity fraud

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News · Posted: Oct 04, 2024

Cheri Power stands in front of Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, where she has received health services for 16 years. She recently was asked to provide proof she's Indigenous, documentation she says she doesn't have. (Arthur White-Crummey/CBC)

When Cheri Power tried to book a new round of therapy this week at her clinic of 16 years, she got an unwelcome email.

"You must provide proof of Indigenous ancestry," it said.

It was a new policy, the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health informed her. She would need a status card or an official letter from a federally recognized band. 

Power has relied on the Ottawa clinic for her doctor, for mental health and addiction support and for everything from nutritionists to chiropractors. Though she's able to hold onto her doctor for now, she was devastated to read that she would lose access to other services with so little warning. 

"It's just not fair," Power said. "To do this without any notice to their clients is cruel."

Wabano says the new policy is needed to combat fraudulent claims of Indigenous identity and that it will offer a transitional period to allow people to gather documents.

But Power doesn't think she should have to revisit past trauma to keep care.

Her Cree mother was a day school survivor facing homelessness and drug problems, Power said, when she was born. Put in foster care and then adopted out to a white family, Power said she was always told she was Indigenous.

She said she finally found her birth mother five years ago.

"I don't have the paperwork to prove any of that," she said. "All of a sudden, there's this incredible barrier to service that I don't know how I'm going to overcome."

'It's a lot of bureaucracy'

Colleen Hele-Cardinal of the Sixties Scoop Network said the barrier can be high and it can sometimes take years to surmount it.

"If you know that you're First Nation, but you can't prove it and the band doesn't sign you on as a member, it's very difficult for you to get status," she said. 

• The Sixties Scoop tried to extinguish our culture and our spirit. It failed

• Sixties Scoop survivors reclaim their heritage with Pow Wow 101

"The time it takes to write for this information [and] to get it back [is substantial]. And if you don't get the right information, you have to send out more requests. It's a lot of bureaucracy."

Survivors can face redacted child welfare records, she said. The problems can be far worse if their father is the one with status but doesn't appear on their birth certificate.

"Once you get the information, you have to apply to [Indigenous Services Canada], and there's a huge backlog for that as well," said Hele-Cardinal.

Wabano blames fraud that denies Indigenous people care

In a statement to CBC, Wabano's director of administration, communications and engagement, Natalie Lloyd, said the centre will accept other ways of confirming Indigenous identity.

Those could include "a letter of kinship connection" for Indigenous people who were caught up in the Sixties Scoop or have no formal records, Lloyd said.

But that possibility was not mentioned in the email to Power, who said it also never came up in subsequent phone calls with the centre.

Lloyd told CBC the policy change was necessary to conserve limited resources for Indigenous people in the face of increasing fraud that deprives Indigenous people of health resources they need.

• B.C. judge warns of 'tsunami' of Indigenous identity fraud cases

• Canada's research funding agencies developing policy to root out Indigenous identity fraud

"Akin to other organizations across Canada, we have seen an increase in individuals fraudulently claiming Indigenous identity to access services and benefits," she said.

"Over the last two years we have consulted with subject matter experts and community stakeholders to assist us in developing our eligibility policy to prevent misuse of limited resources funded for First Nations, Inuit and Métis."

Lloyd would not share how many of Wabano's clients could be affected by the policy change, citing privacy reasons. She said the centre will help any patients who can't prove their Indigenous identity find appropriate health and wellness services elsewhere in Ottawa.

She did not respond to follow-up questions on how long the transitional period will last and whether it applies to all services.

The Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health has been providing health and social services to Ottawa's Indigenous community for 26 years (Jean Delisle/CBC)

Revisiting past 'filled with emotion and turmoil and pain'

Power said she'd have little chance of getting an official letter from a band she has never been to. She said she has previously tried to get her status card but faced similar issues to those Hele-Cardinal described.

Since finding her mother, she now has more information.

"I have a place to start, but this isn't something I ever expected I'd have to deal with or be forced to do," she said. "All of it is so murky, and so filled with emotion and turmoil and pain that it's really hard to even think about starting."

She called the experience of having her Indigenous identity questioned and losing access to medical care "painful and traumatic."

"It's difficult, because a lot of us don't know where we come from," she said. "It touches a really sore spot for a lot of people."

As for the transitional period, Power said it wasn't offered for mental health services. She confirmed she is still being allowed to see her doctor, and saw a nurse on Thursday, though she doesn't know how long that will continue. 

"I have a recent diagnosis of a genetic condition that requires a lot of medical follow through right now, and I'm in a bit of medical turmoil requiring a lot of care with surgery and specialists and a lot of co-ordinating," she said.

"That now is all uncertain. What do I do?"

SOURCE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/patient-furious-as-health-centre-demands-proof-she-s-indigenous-1.7341405

Adoption: The Making of Me (podcast)

 

Podcast: Adoptees' Untold Stories: Voices from the Adoptee Perspective

Today, our guests are Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne, who host “Adoption: The Making of Me,” a podcast focused on adoptees’ perspectives, highlighting the often overlooked side of adoption narratives. Our conversation delves into how the adoption industry, driven by a multibillion-dollar market, prioritizes the narratives of adoptive parents, sidelining the voices and experiences of adoptees. We discuss the societal expectations placed on adoptees to feel grateful despite the complexities of their experiences, including feelings of loss, identity issues, and the challenges of connecting with their biological roots. Furthermore, the dialogue touches on systemic issues in adoption practices, such as the lack of access to original birth records for adoptees. Through their stories and insights, Sara and Louise stress the need for greater understanding, reform in adoption practices, and more inclusive conversations that give adoptees a platform to share their experiences and identities.

“I think you can do both. You can love your family. And you can also want to know your other family and your roots and who you are. It’s like an inherent right, I think, to know who you are because we strive for it. Like we may not know we’re searching, but we are always, because you have like this, this hole that’s missing. And you’re taken from your mother. It’s a strange scenario if you think about it, and you put somewhere else. No one talks to you about it, and you try to navigate the world. And so all these little subtle things growing up affect a lot of people.” ~Louise Browne

Sarah Reinhardt is a co-host of “Adoption: The Making of Me,” a podcast by and for adoptees. She is a writer, empty-nester, OCD dog parent, and works in Public Media in Kansas City, MO. Sarah hopes her voice will help resonate with other adoptees facing similar issues. Currently, she is working on a book of humorous essays that follow the theme of searching for identity.

Louise Browne is a co-host of “Adoption: The Making of Me,” a podcast by and for adoptees. Louise works for the executive leadership team in digital banking. She is working on a YA novel and has written two children’s books along and several poems. Louise lives along the Central Coast of California with her husband, Bill, and their dog, Gracie. She has a grown son who lives in Los Angeles. She is trying to change the narrative of adoption to include the voices of adoptees and to help change the way adoption is run as a business.