The Washington Post reports Louisiana isn’t letting immigrants get married. That's only somewhat hyperbolic.
So, as of this year, any foreign-born person wanting to get married in Louisiana must produce both an unexpired visa (even though a federal court has ruled that marriage licenses cannot be denied based on immigration status), as well as, somewhat inexplicably, a birth certificate.
No birth certificate, no marriage, no excuses.
The law has indeed placed marriage off-limits to immigrants in the country illegally, as intended. But it’s hurt plenty of legal immigrants, too. Louisiana is home to thousands of refugees, predominantly Vietnamese and Laotians who received asylum in the 1970s and 1980s after fleeing war and communism in their homelands.
Today these Louisianans often have green cards and even U.S. citizenship, but no access to their original birth documents, if such documents even exist."
This kind of thing seems to come up often and is something that Republican's forget. Not everyone has a birth certificate, and that doesn't mean they've done anything wrong. It's the same issue with needing to show an id to vote, not everyone has one. Not everyone drives, not everyone can easily get one. But the government has to work for everyone, not just the 90%. That's a big difference from a business. In businesses you pick your markets, and if one segment is too costly to get into, you skip it. Governments don't have the option.
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