FLORIDA — When Cynthia Downs showed up online for our Zoom interview recently, her excitement was palpable.
“It’s just wonderful,” she exclaimed hours after she received her certificate of citizenship during an oath ceremony in Jacksonville.
Watch full report from Katie LaGrone
We first introduced you to Cynthia one year ago. Cynthia lives on a hobby farm just outside of Tallahassee with her husband of 50 years.
For Cynthia, it’s the perfect small-town American life. That is, until a few years ago, when she went to renew her driver license at her local DMV office and discovered she didn’t have the paperwork to prove she was—well, American.
“I just didn't never think about nothing else. I paid my taxes. I've done everything like everybody else, and I’ve been here all my life,” she said. “I've never been to Canada, except for when I was born and I don’t remember that” she told me during our interview last year.
Cynthia’s birth mom was Canadian, and her dad was American.
When the family moved to the United States, she was just an infant. After nearly six decades living and working in the U.S., Cynthia discovered her parents had never secured the documents for her dual citizenship.
As a result, Cynthia can’t get a passport, vote, and, most recently, hasn’t been able to collect the social security retirement benefits she’s paid into for years.
“It’s about $2,000 a month,” she said. “It just tears me up. I thought I’d done everything right, and now the time when I should get the money I earned, I can't get it,” she told us through tears last year.
“I’ve been working with her for about two years,” said Elizabeth Ricci, an immigration attorney who’s been working to prove Cynthia’s American roots.
“We had to issue a subpoena. We got a U.S. Senator's office involved, a genealogist, a private investigator, and we’ve done extensive public records searches to be able to prove what we needed to prove,” Ricci said.
Cynthia’s battle isn’t all that unique. For the past two years, Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone and photojournalist Mathew Apthorp have documented the stories of other Floridians who lived, worked, and raised their families in the United States only to discover later in life that they aren’t legal U.S. citizens.
One of those stories is that of former U.S. Marine Paul Canton. Canton served our country honorably, only to learn decades later that he’s not a U.S. citizen. Canton took his years-long battle to federal court, where it remains.
Ricci says these stories help show how complicated America’s immigration system is.
“You can be born abroad and be a U.S. citizen, but you still need to get proof of that. “You're not going to get those things automatically. You have to ask for them and in this [Cynthia’s] case, it was 60 years in the making before she found out she even needed them,” she said.
So, with family by her side, Cynthia Downs took her American oath during an oath ceremony last week.
A proud American who always lived that way and now, more than 60 years later, has the proof to show for it.
“It means everything!“One little piece of paper makes a big difference, it really does,” she said.
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