Where do you keep your passport?

I was recently scrolling through instagram and came across a post that read, “Police can now stop anyone “they suspect” may be an illegal immigrant.” I did some deep diving on more reputable sources and found that the hot bed of this conversation sits at the US-Mexico border. But as my anxiety would have it, I jumped down the rabbit hole of what it would mean if this in fact became law and not just in Texas, but across the USA. In short, my sphincter tightened and I had chest pain.

I have admittedly had an unusual relationship with my US passport. Fun fact: I ALWAYS HAVE MY PASSPORT ON MY PERSON.

Now before you judge and ridicule me. I want you to consider the following reasons for why I always have my passport on my person:

1. I am regularly required to present 2 forms of ID for business transactions. My driver’s license is my primary and my US passport is most often my secondary.

2. I have had several instances where I have needed to emergently leave a city where I am working, and go to a foreign country. Had I not had my US passport on my person, I would have had to first return home before making the trip out of the country.

3. Paranoia: I have this unrealistic fear that my alliance to the US will stand at odds to my alliance to Jamaica— my birth country. In this delusion, I will be required to provide documentation that I am in fact a US citizen. Voila! I have my US passport handy.

   Negative attitudes towards immigrants are not a new phenomenon. It is however disturbing that these attitudes may gain traction in the law. This would change the way we (the immigrants) navigate day-to-day life in America. I may be oversimplifying here, but anyone who appears to be an immigrant would be required to prove they belong in the US by producing legal documentation on some officer’s request. So is my paranoia, really paranoia? It also is not lost on me that “appears to be an immigrant” could be a whole new rabbit hole.

While writing this post I wrestled with the feeling of not ever truly being American and how my attachment to the 52 pages of that little blue book is an unhealthy attachment to citizenship. As a naturalized citizen, I have been given the right to exist on US soil, but after talking with a few of my other paranoid buddies, there is a residual feeling that this right could just as easily be taken away.

Last week a polled IG to see whether or not I was alone in my paranoia. The results were as my boyfriend suggested: a normal place to keep your passport is at home in a safe, under your mattress or in your underwear drawer. Most people who responded to the poll seemed fearful that someone would steal their passport if they kept it on their person, or that they would lose it. To which I responded, house fire.

I am not sure who is right or that there is even a way to be right. But I am sure you will let me know in the comments.