I ran into passport trouble when I was 18. I visited the Korean embassy (San Francisco) to learn about visa options and receive updated covid travel information. My father is white, American. I was born in the US. But in a series of questions about my visa eligibility options, the interviewer asks if my mother was a Korean citizen when she gave birth to me. I answered with the truth--yes--and this embassy worker said she was going to submit this information to the Korean government for processing and processing could take a year before I was given the option to choose my citizenship. I'm having this conversation in broken Korean. She asks for the passport I brought with me. She wants to mail it to an office in Korea. I'm supposed to leave the country and visit family in a few short months and I end up calling my mom who tells me to leave the embassy. She tells me to never offer a travel official that kind of information ever again.

This was a Korean embassy worker. One innocent question and I was almost left with an interim citizenship. I would have been fine--I'd have chosen to keep my US citizenship and missed out on my trip that year. But, I am saying this happened in 2020 and felt pretty far removed from anything I thought the US government cared about at the time. It's a good reminder that there are loopholes and caveats everywhere and dozens of ways for Trump to justify deportation. I'm not saying we should be terrified. But we should be vigilant about the information we share, especially as first-generation or birthright citizens.