Ermilo Cano almost died in a fire while serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He was trapped for more than 10 hours in the deadly fire on the USS Oriskany. But, now, he feels trapped inside the United States. The veteran has been trying to get a passport for more than a decade, to no avail.
Cano, the son of Mexican immigrants, was born at his family home in Texas back in 1944. His farm worker parents logged his birth in the family bible, but didn’t register him with the state until it was time for him to begin school, six years later. By then, his father paid 50 cents to get Cano a birth certificate and the family didn’t think any more of it.
Now, Cano wants to travel to see his older sister in Mexico, but he can’t get leave the country.
“I can’t go anywhere. I’m going to be 72 in July. It just breaks my heart,” he told The Arizona Republic.
He’s been muddling through red tape for 11 years, trying to get a passport. The State Department has rejected his attempts because he doesn’t have the proper documents.
“You were not born in a medical facility, so you will need to submit a combination of additional documents to further support your claim to United States citizenship,” reads a 2010 letter from the Western Passport Center.
The government has questions about Cano’s delayed birth certificate and so it wants more information to prove he was really born here. Cano has been asked to provide his parents’ border crossing cards, medical records from his first year or a baptismal certificate — documents he simply does not have.
“I said they didn’t stop me in 1963 when I gave them my birth certificate to go overseas, to go to Vietnam. You know what the lady said? She said, ‘Well, at that time they were taking just anyone.’”
Cano says he’s spent more than $8,000 trying to get a passport, including traveling to Texas to look for the records.
Screenshot/The Arizona Republic
