Birth Completion of Certificate or Instrument Death Physician or Funeral director attendant completes certificate, using data completes a certificate using from informant: demographic obtains burial permit upon filing information from mother and data from medial records. Physician or coroner (medical certification of cause of death) Marriage Divorce Clerk of local government processes marriage license request, including serological tests Clerk of court provides form, verifies entries, and enters facts from final decree Marriage officiant (attestation) Petitioner and attorneys Initial Registration Local registrar of vital statistics verifies information, transfers copies to city or coutry health In some states, marriage and divorce records held only by local offices (no state repository) State Processing State vital registration office verifies information, maintains official copies, and codes and keys electronic record State health department/registrar of vital statistics verifies information, maintains official copies National Processing National Center for Health Statistics receives copies of electronic records from states, edits the data, and compiles national vital statistics files for analysis Adapted from: Hetzel, A.M., History and Organization of the Vital Statistics System, National Center for Health Statistics, 1997. A relatively small percentage of U.S. citizens have no birth registration.653 In 2006, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law undertook a nationwide survey on access to documentary proof of citizenship in the United States. The study revealed that seven percent of respondents, corresponding to an estimated 13 million Americans based on 2000 population census figures, lacked “ready access to U.S. passports, naturalization papers, or birth certificates.”654 Some of the major demographic groups affected include older African Americans born in the southern U.S., young people who are aging out of state foster care systems and who never obtained birth certificates, and children raised in families seeking to live “off the grid.”655 U.S.-born citizens whose parents hold identity documents from Mexico and Central American countries have experienced discriminatory practices in accessing birth certificates in Texas, 146 UNMAKING AMERICANS