infrastructure in the administration of birth registration (in stark contrast to the high modern security state administering passports and immigration fraud prevention), and present a brief analysis of constitutional rights infringements posed by the current system. The combined effect leaves certain communities much more vulnerable than others to arbitrary and retroactive challenges to the legitimacy of their claims to U.S. citizenship. Once again, the uniform introduction of centralized security and immigration controls, without regard to the local variation and individual impact of these measures, leaves virtually no room for redress when the system wrongfully excludes U.S. citizens who happen to fit hastily concocted, stereotype-driven profiles. These same dynamics may prevent the public and public institutions from seeing those without a claim to citizenship as equally human and entitled to the full complement of human rights. Yemeni-Americans Mansour…is a twenty-two year old, naturalized Yemeni American who had temporarily relocated to Yemen in order to get married. When he and his spouse had their first baby in Yemen, they went to the U.S. embassy in Sana’a to register the birth abroad. At their arrival, embassy officials detained them and began interrogating him, yelling at him, and demanding that he admit that he had concealed his real name. They then threatened to keep Mansour and his wife and newborn in their custody until he agreed to sign a self-incriminating statement. With his family in tears and terrified, officials finally confiscated Mansour’s U.S. passport and expelled him and his family from the premises.528 Complaints regarding a pattern of passport confiscations at the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, reached the Department of State Office of Inspector General (DOS-OIG) in January 2016, although by that point the confiscations had been going on for several years.529 Journalists uncovered the story in early 2014, when Al Jazeera America published information from a State Department whistleblower alleging, “Virtually all of the statements say that the individual naturalized under a false identity” and yet those same statements “appear to be involuntary.”530 The incidents followed a similar pattern: American citizens would approach the embassy for ordinary consular service,531 such as registration of a birth or marriage, or an application for or renewal of a U.S. passport. The consular officer would then accuse the applicant or a family member of fraudulently acquiring admission to the United States years or decades earlier, often accompanied by threats and interrogation. Finally, the officer would confiscate and retain passports of the individuals concerned.532 A report enclosed with the initial complaint to the DOS-OIG states that family members seeking legal advice to assist their relatives in Yemen, now stranded in a conflict-torn country, 120 UNMAKING AMERICANS