What happens when you've lived in the US as long as you can remember, and then discover in your 30s that your presence isn't lawful

I have a friend who was born in the Czech Republic, and moved to the US as a toddler. After Trump was elected, she was surprised to find letter in the mail from ICE asking her to confirm her lawful presence in the country for the first time in 35 years.

I have another friend who was born in China and adopted by American parents as a newborn. The same thing happened.

Another friend of mine was fortunate enough to avoid this fate, becauseafter 35 years in the United States ten of which we'd been friends he had finally formalized his citizenship. I remember the shock and double-take that fell across my face in 2014 when I learned that hehadn't been a citizen after all this time. He had moved to the US from Argentina as a toddler, and though his presence remained legal for those 35 years, he hadn't done anything to formalize his citizenship until after his father passed away.

I thought of these friends as I read thisNew York Times article about an adopted woman who is married with two children, and recently discovered much to her surprise, and by no fault of her own that her presence isn't lawful.

It was on the eve of getting married in 2012 that she realized there was something amiss in her all-American upbringing. Adopted as an infant from Mexico, she discovered that what she thought was a minor mix-up in her paperwork was something else entirely.