95-Year-Old WWII Vet Leeland Davidson Finds Out He's Not a US Citizen

During a routine trip to his local DMV in Washington state, 95-year-old Leeland Davidson got the surprise of his life: Despite having served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and having lived in America most of his life, he's not a U.S. citizen. Never was.

Davidson was born in Canada in 1916, but he always assumed that because his parents were Americans, he is too. It appears now that his parents never registered his birth with U.S. authorities, and he got Canadian citizenship by default instead.

He only discovered the error recently, when he applied for a new ID in order to visit relatives across the Canadian border. "We went up to get an enhanced driver's license, and they turned me down," Davidson told Fox News. "They said, 'Uh, you're Canadian.' "

Now he's starting the long process of applying for U.S. citizenship, with the help of his local senator.

"I want it squared away before I pass away," Davidson told his local KVAL TV station where he lives, in Centralia, Wash.

To get his American passport, Davidson has to show proof of his parents' heritage. But that could prove difficult. They were born in Iowa in the late 19th century, but the state's birth certificate records don't go back that far.

"My dad was born in Iowa, and we called and wrote to Iowa, and they said they didn't start keeping records until 1880 -- he was born in 1878," Davidson said.

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In the 1940s, Davidson even got into the U.S. military without proof of citizenship. He says an inspector at the U.S. Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service told him at the time that he had nothing to worry about. And Davidson says he still has a lawyer's letter confirming that.

Meanwhile, Davidson's daughter, Rose Schoolcraft, says the revelation about her father's true identity has shaken the family.

"If he pursued it, he could possibly be deported, and possibly lose Social Security [payments] -- so that kinda scared everybody," Schoolcraft said.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who is helping expedite Davidson's paperwork, told The Centralia Chronicle that work is under way to get the WWII veteran "the recognition as a U.S. citizen that he deserves."