We don't really have a standard way to definitively say "I am a citizen" in the US. It's all kinda ad-hoc, like most of the rest of our ID system. Closest thing's a birth certificate[EDIT: or naturalization papers, of course, for immigrants], I guess, but that's a pain in the ass for anyone who's had a name change (lots of married women, notably) because then they need more documents.

Having a social security or other tax-related ID has sufficed for banks so far, which doesn't guarantee the holder is a citizen but does demonstrate enough relevant "status" with the government for banking to probably go smoothly.

Digging ourselves deeper into our already awful decentralized partially-privatized (the CRAs, mostly) identification system by expanding the set of things we have to prove in even more circumstances is not a good thing.

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aboardRat4 a day ago | parent | next [-]

>We don't really have a standard way to definitively say "I am a citizen" in the US.

In most countries of the world, the best way to prove your citizenship is to apply for a visa. That is you world apply for a US visa and get an official rejection, because US citizens don't need/cannot get a visa, and the rejection document would be the proof of citizenship.

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pjc50 a day ago | parent [-]

.. that seems extremely dangerous, because I wouldn't trust that refusal to not raise red flags for the rest of your life. I've not heard of people routinely doing this or announcing it as a valid method of proof of citizenship which they accept.

	▲	tenacious_tuna 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed, that seems like exactly the thing that would get you pulled aside at the border, and/or give ICE a reason to not trust your American passport.

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5555624 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Closest thing's a birth certificate[EDIT: or naturalization papers, of course, for immigrants], I guess, but that's a pain in the ass for anyone who's had a name change (lots of married women, notably) because then they need more documents.

Or a FS-240, Consular Report of Birth Abroad, from the State Department. I was born on a US military base and although I have a birth certificate, the only think I've ever been able to use it for was my REAL ID. I had to use the FS-240 for my passport, SSN, etc.

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busterarm a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I needed my birth certificate to open my first bank account. Although that's because I was a minor.

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toast0 a day ago | parent [-]

I've opened several bank accounts for my child. All they needed was the social security number and my photo id (and maybe my social security number too).

	▲	busterarm a day ago \| parent [-]
		You're trying to correlate events that are decades apart, in a thread where we're literally discussing a single administration's change in policy...