Pictures of Cynthia Downs’ life on the farm in Chattahoochee, a small city just outside Tallahassee, date back more than 30 years.
The land, which has been in her husband’s family for generations, is where the couple raised their girls, started their own hobby farm, and are well into training the family’s next generation.
For Downs, it’s the perfect life for a small-town American girl who always assumed she was an American.
“I just didn’t never think about nothing else. I’ve paid my taxes; I’ve done everything like everybody else, and I’ve been here all my life,” Downs told investigative reporter Katie LaGrone recently. “I’ve never been to Canada, except for when I was born, and I didn’t remember that.”
Her birth mom was Canadian, and her dad was American. She said the family moved to the United States when she was just an infant and America is the only home Downs has ever known.
“Never, no red flags,” she said about any questions she’s faced over her citizenship status.
That’s until she went to renew her driver’s license a few years ago and the DMV informed her that she wasn’t here legally.
Downs was 62 years old at the time.
“I thought it was crazy,” she said. “Yeah, that was crazy.”
Downs said that since then, she’s been fighting to prove her father’s American roots. To claim dual citizenship, her dad had to have been living in the U.S. for five years before Downs was born, which she said he was.
But with so much time passed, digging up her father’s past has been tough. Though her dad served in the U.S. military, Downs was informed his military records were destroyed in a fire at the government facility where they were housed.
Without enough evidence, Downs is not eligible for dual citizenship, which means she won’t be able to collect her Social Security retirement benefits, which she estimates are worth about $2,000 per month.
“It just tears me up,” she said, getting emotional. “I just thought I’d done everything right, up and down. But when it’s time I get the money I earned, I can’t get it.”
When asked who she blames, Downs responded, “I think it’s the system.”
Her citizenship fight isn’t unique.
Last month, we introduced you to Jimmy Klass, who was also born in Canada, raised in America, and has lived his entire life as an American. Klass even voted in every U.S. election he could.
“I’ve been voting for 40 years. I guess I’m in a lot of trouble,” he joked at the time. Klass has since removed himself from the voting rolls.
Klass learned he also wasn’t a U.S. citizen when Social Security refused to pay him his retirement benefits because he couldnt prove his legal status.
At the time, Klass had been living in America for 64 years.
“I was totally blindsided,” he told us about learning he wasn’t here legally.
Our story about Klass went viral and attracted new attention from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, whose office confirmed to us in an email that they are in touch with Klass to “offer assistance.”
Immigration Attorney Elizabeth Ricci is representing Downs and said what’s happening to her and Klass is the result of America’s complex, confusing and constantly changing immigration system.
“It’s a reflection of a poor system, poor communication and a breakdown over many years by different agencies,” Ricci said. “No one ever pointed out to either of the people that were talking about that they didn’t have proof of citizenship. No one ever asked for that until they were approaching retirement. That’s a big problem, and it tells me there are many, many other people in this situation.”
Now Downs and Klass are learning later in life what they believe they should have been told decades earlier.
“I’m supposed to be retired,” Klass said. “My pension and Social Security, that’s what I worked for. I get my pension, but I don’t get my Social Security.”
She was asked what she wanted the government to know about her.
“The same as every American in this world,” Downs said. “I’ve been here. I pay my taxes, and I should get my little Social Security back. I love America. This is not fair.”