Among the many groups voicing concern that the new Social Security Number (SSN) could be used for discriminatory purposes (the Social Security Act became law two years after the Nazi registration laws of 1933),511 were working women.512 In the 1930s, women often provided false information about their age and marital status to employers in order to find work. Because of the age and marital status requirements for accessing social security entitlements, these women would now be financially disadvantaged or face loss of employment if the correct information was shared with their employers. A group of anonymous women calling themselves “The ‘Fibbers’” wrote to the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1936 to sound their alarm about the “bad predicament” that the Social Security Act put them in.513 Their letter illustrates a familiar phenomenon in which the introduction of new methods of documentation exposes earlier coping mechanisms that were possible, even openly tolerated, in a previous age of obscurity.514 The introduction of Social Security made “Fibbers” into “fraudsters.” As one scholar noted: When it came to their bosses, African American, Jewish, female, and unionized workers alike had no trouble grasping the dark side of legibility. …In June 1937, the [Social Security Bureau]’s first regulation – Regulation No. 1 – formalized its pledge of confidentiality for information collected and maintained. Even so, the new administrative system threatened to unravel tried-and-true practices by which workers both kept certain kinds of information private and kept their jobs.515 Originally designed for a particular use—tracking eligibility and administering social security accounts—the SSN proliferated across government agencies as a quasi-foundational identification tool.516 From the 1960s onward, the SSN became a de facto general identifier with the advent of computer record-keeping and automated data processing. Since the early 1970s, non-citizens can apply for and receive an SSN.517 Documentation of U.S. Citizenship Today This overview focuses on the document most associated with proof of U.S. citizenship: the passport. Under U.S. law, a passport is construed as a fundamental right pursuant to the liberty interest expressed in the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause.518 A passport does not have the same legal significance and effect as a certificate of citizenship or a certificate of naturalization, which can only be legally granted and taken away through a judicial process.519 Consequently, taking away a passport does not automatically invalidate a certificate of citizenship or naturalization.520 As explored in more depth through case studies below, the practical effects of passport retention, revocation, and confiscation can be identical to deprivation of nationality, and particularly disastrous for citizens who are overseas at the time. 118 UNMAKING AMERICANS