Jimmy Klass, a 66-year-old Florida man who had been living in the United States since he was a toddler, was shocked to discover that he was not a US citizen when applying for Social Security payments. He had been expecting to receive a letter from the Social Security Administration in 2020 informing him of when he could begin receiving benefits, but instead, he was told that his money was frozen because he had not proven that he was in the country legally.
Klass had assumed he was a citizen based on the fact that his father was a natural-born American. However, his mother was Canadian, and his paternal grandparents were from Germany. He had always believed that his father’s citizenship granted him the same status. Klass had been living in the US since he was 2 years old in the 1960s and had been granted eligibility to join the Marine Corps and become a police officer, passing various background checks, without any citizenship discrepancies arising.
Despite having a Social Security card, valid driver’s license, and being a registered voter, Klass was unable to prove his citizenship to Social Security Administration. He had even been receiving Medicare benefits for over a year and a half before the issue came to light. Klass had voted in multiple elections, which is a federal crime if done by an illegal resident, but had not faced any consequences for it. He had to now go on the defense with USCIS and provide documents proving his long-term residency in the US.
Klass tried reaching out to the Canadian consulate in Miami for help but was unsuccessful in clarifying his citizenship status. He had spent thousands of dollars trying to resolve the issue and had been forced to return to work due to the financial burden. Klass launched a GoFundMe to raise money to hire an attorney and a genealogist to fight USCIS on receiving his Social Security benefits. He learned that the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 did not apply to him as it was not in effect when he moved to America as a child.
USCIS declined to comment on Klass’s case due to privacy considerations. The agency stated that they do not discuss individual immigration cases and evaluate each application on its own merits to ensure it meets all legal standards. Klass had been left in a difficult situation as he continued to fight to prove his citizenship and receive his Social Security benefits. Despite living in the US for over 60 years and considering himself a citizen, he found himself entangled in a bureaucratic nightmare that threatened his financial stability in retirement.
