reply to post by Hippo45
Somewhere around January 1988 a new U.S. law was enacted that required all U.S. Corporations, regardless of size, to implement the 1-9 Policy for all
new hires. This policy was about a clamp-down/avoiding the hiring of illegals and to satisfy/enforce this -- "Do you have the legal right to work in
the U.S".
So, we were required to "I-9" all new hires from that point on, and to this very day. Every new hire was required (again, by law) on their first day
of employment to provide specific types of documentation of their legal right to work in the U.S. -- 2/3 forms of identification satisfied the
requirement.
When one particular new hire provided his driver's license, birth certificate and SSN card, the most common forms of documentation, I commented on the
fact about how cool it must have been to be born and raised in Hawaii. So, I said to him, "You were born in Hawaii", and he replied, "No - I was
raised in Hawaii from the time I was 1-month old ... but I wasn't actually born there". I remember he was born in 1964, as his B-Day was a few days
before my brother's B-Day.
He went on to explain that he was born in Figi and that his mother and father were Hawaiian but his mother traveled to Fiji in her mid pregnancy to
stay with her sister and other relatives for the birth. When she returned to Hawaii she was able to obtain a valid Hawaiian birth certificate for her
newborn son, as if he was actually born there in Hawaii. I asked him why and how would that be legal. He said back then it was done all of the time
and it was quite common. He said first priority for jobs is always given to native Hawaiians. So, his mother played it safe. Once she had a BC from
Fiji she could not have later changed it. He said that it was a 'no questions asked' situation.
It was not my job to challenge the State of Hawaii on his birth certificate and since it was a certified copy, I just made a hard-copy for his file,
handed back the original BC to him, we chatted about the Hawaiian Islands, and then he went off to start his first day of employment. I never thought
anything of this until years ago when the Obama BC issue surfaced.
Additionally, as an FYI ... as we were receiving BC's (as documentation) from other new hires who were Black, we noticed this on the BC for Blacks
born before the mid-1960's -- either "Colored" or "Negro", instead of Black or African-American, was usually typed in the 'Race' box on the BC ... not
Black or African-American.
edit on 17-8-2011 by Jana12 because: typo
edit on 17-8-2011 by Jana12 because: spelling