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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney, who does work for YC and startups. AMA

257 points proberts | 1 comments | 16 May 25 15:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source

I'll be here for the next 5-6 hours. As usual, there are countless topics given the rapidly changing immigration landscape and I'll be guided by whatever you're concerned with. Please remember that I can't provide legal advice on specific cases because I won't have access to all the facts. Please stick to a factual discussion in your questions and I'll try to do the same in my answers.

Edit: I am taking a break now and will return later this afternoon/evening to respond to any comments and answer any questions. Thank you everyone for a great and engaged AMA so far.

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taway20250516 ◴[17 May 25 03:00 UTC] No.44011714[source]▶
A legally-uneducated read of 22 CFR 51.62 suggests that the State Department can revoke a passport that was "illegally, fraudulently, or erroneously obtained."

How likely would you consider the idea that the current administration would revoke existing passports for transgender Americans under the pretense that they were "fraudulently or erroneously" obtained under processes put in place by previous administrations?

replies(2): >>44012907 #>>44014249 #
jigpaw ◴[17 May 25 08:29 UTC] No.44012907[source]▶
If a male obtains a passport which states that his sex is female, or vice versa, then that is erroneous, isn't it?
replies(1): >>44013339 #
1. Spivak ◴[17 May 25 10:36 UTC] No.44013339[source]▶
One could make that argument, except that until the Trump administration the US government has made no distinction between sex and gender when it comes to sex markers. A transgender woman is a transexual woman is legally female. They have explicitly allowed updating passports and had a process of providing documentation from courts and doctors to prove that one has transitioned. So no one obtained anything erroneously or fraudulently and in fact were very upfront about it.

Where it gets awkward for everyone involved is when you have a trans woman say who is recognized female on her birth certificate and by her state now coming in conflict with a federal government that suddenly doesn't respect that. Where it gets even awkwarder-r is more trans people pass than people assume and it would cause more issues to have their chromosomal sex listed on their ID than not. If my friend who is a trans woman walked into the men's bathroom they would be like, "hey lady this is the men's."