After fighting for 10 years to obtain birth certificates and Social Security numbers, two Perry residents in their 20s were finally issued Social Security cards in August. For James Santos and his two children, Wocawson Luszcz‑Santos and Kamiwan Luszcz‑Santos, though, the ordeal has left the family broke and the children far behind their peers in being able to find work or start a career.
The saga began when Wocawson was born in 1992 and Kamiwan in 1994, both in Cambridge, Mass. However, their parents, James Santos and Margaret Luszcz, left the hospital each time before birth certificates were recorded, and the City of Cambridge ended up never issuing the birth certificates because they had not signed them. Santos then attempted to have delayed records of birth issued, but the Cambridge city clerk's office would not issue the certificates until Santos' paternity of the two children could be determined and a court had ordered that the birth certificates be issued. Meanwhile, Margaret Luszcz left the family in 1995, and Santos raised the children on his own.
     After a long legal proceeding, in January 2012 a court finally ruled that Santos is the children's father, and the delayed birth certificates were issued in April. However, Wocawson and Kamiwan were still not able to obtain Social Security numbers, because of delays by the Social Security Administration office in Bangor and a decision by the office not to accept the delayed birth certificates, even though the Social Security website states that a birth record amended after the age of 5 is acceptable evidence of U.S. citizenship.
     Since then the family has been dealing primarily with Senator Susan Collins' Bangor office to obtain the Social Security numbers. When Santos asked a staff member in the office why they were not accepting the birth certificates, he was told that the "expert" at the Social Security Administration was not accepting them. When they were finally accepted and he asked why they were now being accepted, he was told that the expert was now accepting them. When he asked for the name of the expert, he had to wait over a month and kept getting put off, until finally he was told that the information could not be obtained from the Social Security Administration.
     Santos asks, "Does this seem right, that after five years after refusing this delayed birth certificate they're going to accept it? Why didn't they do that to begin with? This ain't right." His son Wocawson comments, "They can't cite any laws" for their action in not accepting the delayed birth certificates.
      Santos says, "The people we have been dealing with are not educated about these things. There should be a training period on how to read an operations manual if people have this problem."
Kamiwan observes, "I can't believe what has happened. How can these people be in these positions if they don't even know what's going on?" Her father adds, "The information is out there. You just have to look for it." He notes that one person in the Social Security Administration made an incorrect decision that was then backed up by the offices of Senator Collins, Congressman Bruce Poliquin and Senator Angus King. "Do we mean that little?" asks Santos. "These people go on like nothing has happened."
     "It's like they're trying to ignore it, sweep it under the rug. They're interests are economic interests," he says, not in helping their constituents. "We're not part of the economy, let's face it." To which Wocawson adds philosophically, "We are the gravel that holds the pylons of the pier of life."
Digging out of an economic hole
     The decade-long fight has left the family in an economic hole that will be hard to dig out of. Wocawson says he should be through college and pursuing a career by now. If possible, he will continue with schooling and would like to complete a certification program to work on computers.      He may be able to do that online but will need to get a bank account, which he does not yet have, and also will need to obtain a state identification card.
     Santos notes, "Everything now requires Social Security numbers." The two children have not been able to get driver's licenses, and without identification cards they can't even get on the bus that goes to Bangor. Wocawson notes that he can't apply for food stamps, because he needs to apply for jobs but doesn't have transportation to be able to submit applications. He observes that a Social Security number is needed just for "picking snails off the beach. That's not right."
      Santos says to his son, "The blacks in the 50s were better off. They had to sit at the back of the bus, but you couldn't get on the bus. The black man had to work in the fields, but you couldn't even work in the fields."
     Wocawson says, "I've tried to apply the skills I've gained," and he is now doing some work for the Passamaquoddy tribal government at Sipayik as a contract laborer, earning $39.60 an hour to help with computer problems. However, that work is sporadic.
      He notes, "My standard of living was high" when he was very young living in the city. Slowly it has inched down to where he says he was "indigent. I am slowly building up now. I shouldn't be this far behind." With no money and few assets and unable to afford a vehicle, he's starting off with much less than those his own age.
     For Kamiwan, who now is caring for a young daughter, her father asks, "What the heck can she do? Go clamming once in a while or wrinkling?" When she was 13 she had told her father that she wanted to be a classical pianist and tour Europe. She could read music and played Bach and Mozart. While she continued taking lessons and did well at Washington Academy, she wasn't able to go to music school after graduating. However, her father says, "She'll make out. I know she will."
Santos notes that he presently has $300 in his bank account, with winter starting soon and property taxes of perhaps $400 due. "Basically, I have been made broke by supporting these two because they couldn't go out and do it themselves."
      Reflecting, he comments, "I never liked government -- just the whole idea. I don't like the concept of being governed. I don't believe that is freedom. I think maybe 10,000 to 12,000 years ago people took a wrong step. They became civilized. I think of all the empires, principalities -- the Aztecs, the Ming dynasty -- all of the belief that's come and gone. Name me one that's ended happily."
     Thinking more about their plight, he continues, "The children ought to at least have a choice. This economic system offers no choice."
     The Santos family hopes that anyone who has a problem similar to their issue in obtaining Social Security cards will get in touch with them so they can provide some suggestions.