More worryingly, the relationship between denial and deprivation of proof of citizenship has elsewhere laid the groundwork for more comprehensive and final denationalization of minority groups. This is why the comparative case study on the Dominican Republic presented earlier, and explored further in this chapter and the next, is so germane. The rules regulating proof of U.S. citizenship state that birth certificates showing full name, place and date of birth, parents’ full names, and signed and sealed by the official custodian of birth records with a filing date within one year of the birth are “primary evidence” of birth in the United States.521 A birth certificate is not “conclusive proof ” of U.S. citizenship, although it may be “almost conclusive” when made “contemporaneously with the birth.”522 For those without a birth certificate, or those whose certificate’s authenticity is challenged by the Department of State, “secondary evidence” is required to establish birth in the United States.523 U.S. law defines secondary evidence, and accords vast discretion to the Department of State in assessing both the reliability of evidence furnished and its sufficiency in establishing U.S. citizenship. Evidence must be: Sufficient to establish to the satisfaction of the Department [of State] that he or she was born in the United States. Secondary evidence includes but is not limited to hospital birth certificates, baptismal certificates,524 medical and school records, certificates of circumcision, other documentary evidence created shortly after birth but generally not more than 5 years after birth, and/or affidavits of persons having personal knowledge of the facts of the birth.525 Furthermore, “The Department may require an applicant to provide any evidence that it deems necessary to establish that he or she is a U.S. citizen or non-citizen national, including evidence in addition to the evidence specified.”526 Federal regulations and consistent judicial authority confirm that the applicant must meet a preponderance (more likely than not) of the evidence standard to establish citizenship when applying for a passport.527 The case studies presented in this section gather recent information on U.S. government practice in administering access to passports for particular groups of citizens whose personal histories and identities place them in the sights of one of the most centralized components of the American state: its national security and border security apparatus. The case studies look at three groups: Yemeni-Americans, U.S. citizens living along the southern border, and U.S. citizens detained under the Secure Communities program and its progeny. The stories themselves are followed by a technical roadmap setting out the legal framework for passport adjudications and remedies available to citizens whose documents are denied, retained, or revoked. The final sections of this chapter explore the much weaker state III. Denial and revocation of documentation of U.S. citizenship 119