A 66-year-old man from Florida discovered he is not an "actual citizen" after living in the United States for over six decades, following his application for Social Security retirement benefits. The British newspaper "Daily Mail" reported that the man, Jimmy Klass, learned of his non-citizen status when he recently applied for Social Security retirement paperwork.
Klass, who came to the United States at the age of two, has been living in the country ever since, having obtained a Social Security card, a driver's license, and a voter registration card. He stated that he has "voted in multiple elections and was accepted into the Marine Corps and police forces," although he eventually chose a union job instead.
Regarding the discovery of his non-citizen status, Klass explained that he received a letter saying, "You are eligible," but instead of receiving a check, he received a notification that it had been frozen because he had not proven to them that he was here legally, which was their decision.
The man believed he had been a citizen his entire life, and his father's birth certificate shows he was a U.S. citizen by birth, while his mother is of Canadian descent and his paternal grandparents came from Germany. He added, "No one has shown up at my door to arrest me yet," pointing out that "my father’s roots are from Brooklyn, New York."
He mentioned he participated in and voted in multiple elections, which is a federal offense for non-citizens according to the FBI; however, "nothing ever led me to believe I was not." He confirmed, "I have all those documents too; I mean, I have been accepted in everything, photo ID, I have voted here, I acted as a normal citizen; it never happened that I was here illegally, although Social Security says I did not prove that to them. They gave me my Medicare for over a year and a half, and I said, 'Well, no one has shown up at my door to arrest me yet.'"
Klass further explained that he even went to the Canadian consulate in Miami, spending thousands of dollars trying to recover the money he paid into Social Security throughout his life. Now, Klass is unable to receive his Social Security payments and is forced to return to work. He said, "I told them: Well, if you’re not going to pay me monthly, give me everything I paid with interest, and we will stop that," and they replied: "We can’t do that either."
In the meantime, Klass has set up a "GoFundMe" page to help cover this unexpected change in his lifestyle, raising $235 of his $10,000 goal. He wrote: "Good day everyone, the reason I started my funding is that the U.S. government is not paying me Social Security that I paid into all my life because they claim I am not here legally, even though I have been here for 64 years." He affirmed, "My case is now in the hands of the media, and as I get older, I have become a financial burden."
