Let Elyria library process passport applications

The U.S. State Department has done patrons of the Elyria Public Library a disservice by forbidding the library from processing passport applications. Last week, the library received a letter from the State Department ordering it to halt processing passport applications by Friday. While we recognize that passport application services are available elsewhere in the community, including at Lorain County Clerk of Courts Tom Orlando's office and the U.S. Post Office branch in Elyria, the decision is still disappointing. Other passport locations will likely become busier because the library no longer offers that service, as library Director Jennifer Starkey pointed out in a story we published Sunday. "We are concerned that this decision about passports will create a tangible service gap for our community," she said. "There will be fewer options for people in Lorain County to receive support with passport applications." She's right to be concerned. The Elyria library, which helped 326 people obtain passports last year, appears to be the only library in Lorain County subject to the State Department order. Although the Elyria Public Library operates as if it were a governmental entity — its appointed board holds public meetings and is subject to state ethics laws, etc. — it was formed in the late 1800s as a privately funded, public library and retains its nonprofit status, Starkey said. The Lorain Public Library System and Grafton-Midview Public Library, the other libraries that process passport applications in the county, are organized differently, which means they aren't impacted by the State Department's reversal. (Libraries in Avon Lake, Amherst, Oberlin and Wellington do not handle passport applications.) Asked by The Associated Press to explain why nonprofit libraries are now barred from handling passports, a State Department spokesperson said that federal regulations "clearly prohibit non-governmental organizations" from collecting passport application fees. The spokesperson did not respond to questions about why this had become an issue now, The AP reported. The spokesperson did say that the impacted libraries made up less than 1 percent of the network of passport-processing locations. (The American Library Association estimates that about 1,400 nonprofit public libraries could be impacted by the sudden change, depending on whether they handle passports.) Perhaps the order for nonprofit libraries to stop processing passport applications is merely the State Department deciding to enforce a technicality, albeit one that went unenforced for years. If that's the case, there's an easy-enough fix: Congress could — and should — pass a pending bipartisan bill would allow libraries like Elyria to resume handling passport applications. But this is the Trump administration we're talking about, which means it's hard not to be suspicious that there's an ulterior motive to sudden enforcement of a rule, especially one that deals with citizenship. Among other things, the Trump administration has tried to eliminate, unconstitutionally in our view, birthright citizenship and mulled denaturalizing some citizens. Then there's the massive deportation campaign targeting immigrants who are in the country illegally. Although the deportation effort is supposed to focus on criminals and gang members, plenty of other immigrants, including some who were in the country legally, have found themselves caught up in the dragnet. Additionally, some U.S. citizens have been detained, which is why some people have started carrying their passports with them. The Trump administration also is backing legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. The so-called SAVE Act has passed the House, but has stalled in the Senate, thanks to opposition from most Democrats and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Despite Republican claims that voting by noncitizens is rampant, the reality is that it's vanishingly rare. (It's already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.) The bill might keep a handful of noncitizens from voting, but it would certainly make it more difficult for millions of Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Not everyone has easy access to his or her birth certificate, marriage license, passport or other documents that prove citizenship. Such documents are also necessary to secure the increasingly necessary REAL ID mark on one's driver's license or other state identification. It's not always easy or cheap to get those documents. If they can't produce their papers, Americans might have trouble quickly proving their citizenship, either at the polling place or on the street. A passport, therefore, is not just necessary to travel beyond U.S. borders, it's an increasingly necessary document inside America. The federal government should be expanding options for Americans to secure a passport, not shrinking them. It can start with working to restore a service at the Elyria library that Elyrians and others have depended on for years.