This tiny article (Puerto Rican birth certificate law affects Ill.) reveals a huge problem for people born in Puerto Rico. This article addresses only 50, 000 Illinoisans who were born in Puerto Rico that will have to “get new birth certificates because of a law enacted in the U.S. island commonwealth.”

Identity theft seems to be the issue.

My questions: how many of the millions of Puerto Rican-born people affected are adoptees? Do Puerto Rican-born people adopted and brought to the mainland now have to get new amended birth certificates as well? Will their Original Birth Certificates be altered again, too? How many times are governments going to alter birth certificates for adoptees?

Federal officials have said up to 40 percent of U.S. identity fraud involves birth certificates from Puerto Rico.

As of July 1, all previously issued Puerto Rican birth certificates are void. It will affect more than a third of the 4.1 million people of Puerto Rican descent living in the 50 states.

Joan M Wheeler, BA, BSW, author of Forbidden Family: A Half Orphan’s Account of Her Adoption, Reunion and Social Activism, Trafford Publishing, Nov 2009.