Akron Law Review, Vol. 57 [2025], Iss. 1, Art. 2 60 AKRON LAW R EVIEW [57:49 the adoptees’ ability, later in life, to access the original birth certificate. 62 Adoptees’ rights advocates argue that preventing an adoptee from accessing their original birth certificate and thus identifying their birth parents is harmful. 63 This Article will not comprehensively explore these connections between racial and other forms of discrimination and birth certificates. Rather, it demonstrates the impact that individuals experience when they are excluded from birth registration. Still, it is vital to note that, because of discrimination, the impacts of non-registration disproportionately affect racially minoritized and immigrant, rural, and low-income communities. 3. Birth Registration and Processes to Establish U.S. Citizenship Documents such as birth certificates and passports do not constitute U.S. citizenship. For individuals born in the United States and under the jurisdiction of the U.S. government, their birth in territory establishes their citizenship, without further requirements. But in practice, access to documentation is critical to access the benefits of citizenship. Efforts to undermine claims to citizenship often target individuals’ access to passports and birth certificates. The State Department revoked passports from Yemeni-Americans while they were outside of the United States, 64 a practice which many argue violates the privileges and immunities guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment. 65 Further literature describes the challenges that Mexican-Americans often face to their claims of U.S. citizenship, even when births are registered in the United States. 66 Federal agencies and state officials both conduct individualized assessments of the individual’s entitlement to U.S. citizenship. Federal agencies assess a person’s citizenship in passport applications 67 and in 62. Id. 63. ADOPTEES UNITED, P OSITION S TATEMENTS, https://adopteesunited.org/positions/ [https://perma.cc/6Z67-XPRF] (last visited June 11, 2023). 64. Ramzi Kassem, Passport Revocation as Proxy Denaturalization: Examining the Yemen Cases, 82 F ORDHAM L. R EV. 2099, 2110 (2014). 65. Id.; Patrick Weil, Citizenship, Passports, and the Legal Identity of Americans: Edward Snowden and Others Have a Case in the Courts, 123 YALE L. J. F. 565, 567 (2014). 66. Elisa Carino, supra note 60; Lichtenberger, supra note 60, at 453; Gavriela M. BoginFarber, Birth Certificate Challenges for Children of Immigrants: Unintended Consequences of AntiImmigrant Restrictionism, 16 HARV. LATINO L. R EV. 169, 175–77 (2013). 67. 22 U.S.C. § 211(a) (1994) (authorizing the Secretary of State to issue passports). The registrant has the burden of proving that he or she is entitled to U.S. citizenship. 22 C.F.R. § 51.40 (2007). https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol57/iss1/2 12