chanel
Silver Member
WASHINGTON - Native Puerto Ricans living outside the island territory are reacting with surprise and confusion after learning that their birth certificates will become no good this summer.
A law enacted by Puerto Rico in December, mainly to combat identity theft, invalidates as of July 1 all previously issued Puerto Rican birth certificates. That means more than a third of the 4.1 million people of Puerto Rican descent living in the 50 states must arrange to get new certificates.
People born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, are U.S. citizens at birth. Anyone using a stolen Puerto Rico birth certificate could enter and move about the U.S. more easily, which could also pose security problems.
He said the State Department told him that as much as 40 percent of the identity fraud in the United States involves birth certificates from Puerto Rico.
"As the need in the black market for birth certificates with Hispanic-sounding names grew, the black market value of Puerto Rican birth certificates has gone into the $5,000-to-$10,000 range," McClintock said.
Birth-certificate law puzzles many Puerto Ricans | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/28/2010