III. DENIAL AND REVOCATION OF DOCUMENTATION OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP Introduction Classifications distinguishing “aliens” from citizens are presumptively legitimate in the eyes of U.S. law.485 As one scholar has argued, “In the exercise of its broad power over naturalization and immigration, Congress regularly makes rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens.”486 To administer these distinctions, the U.S., like other countries, deploys an increasingly elaborate regime of identity registration and documentation.487 Proof of American citizenship—not quite citizenship itself, but the state’s official acknowledgement of it—distinguishes citizens from aliens. Over time, the consequences of a lack of accepted forms of documentation have only mounted, as the documentary link to a central, federal state became more important and benefits of American citizenship emerged in the public imagination as a globally sought-after “prize.”488 This chapter looks in depth at proof of identity and citizenship, and specifically at access to birth certificates and passports in the United States. Other scholars and commentators have begun to explore the same topic.489 We conclude, echoing many other observers, that the systems that generate and maintain the evidentiary building blocks of American citizenship fail to work for everyone. In fact, a combination of institutional design and exceedingly narrow 114 UNMAKING AMERICANS