Seattle Theater Director Finally Loses 'Unlawful Alien' Title

According the The Seattle Times, Ruben Van Kempen, a beloved Roosevelt High School theater director, recently went to apply for Social Security and Medicare but was told he was an "unlawful alien" despite being a U.S. citizen for 35 years.

With help from a senator, a Congress member and the threat of a lawsuit, Van Kempen was able to regain his title as citizen. This man's tale may be over, but it brings about a conversation about the much bigger issue of vetting immigrants.

"It appears that in Mr. Van Kempen's case, there was a technical error," the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency wrote to the office of U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle. The agency said the problem was in a database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program. "We apologize for any inconvenience or undue concern this may have caused your constituent."

The issue with this is that U.S. citizens with passports are not supposed to be subjected to this database. The program is in place to vet immigrants here on work visas or noncitizens who may be applying for benefit programs. However, Van Kempen who has been a citizen since 1982, showed his passport at the Social Security office in Seattle to no avail.

Students from across 37 years of teaching contacted him, offering help. Friends lightened the mood by picketing his 65th birthday party last week with fake protest signs, reading "Hell no, he won't go," "Free Ruben," and "Ruben's life matters."

"I would still be considered an alien in my own country, and my file would still be sitting there buried, if a friend hadn't thought to contact the Seattle Times," he said. "But your newspaper can't profile every immigrant with a problem. That leaves me very unsettled."

It turns out that Republicans have been attempting to expand the Alien Verification program as means to purge the voter-registration rolls. U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle said that this case is a study in how these vetting databases can harm innocent citizens.

Read the full article here.