I don't think I can imagine the frustration.

Okay, here's the story: a nineteen year old girl in Texas has some of the shittiest parents I can imagine.  I don't know if there was any abuse defined as such, but there's certainly a level of hampering her getting on with her life that I think merits at least a short prison sentence.

Alicia Pennington was born at home.  Her parents refused to file for a birth certificate, or a social security number.  She was home schooled, and never needed medical care.  There is no official record of this girl.  Her attempts to file for a delayed birth certificate were denied, because the judge said there wasn't enough evidence she was born to US citizens on US soil, and her parents refuse to testify to their citizenship...or hers. 

In my honest opinion, this smacks of a nearly perfect attempt to control the girl.  She isn't able to get a job, much less do anything else that even an illegal immigrant does as a matter of course, because everyone knows she's American but she can't prove it officially.   

I think her parents ought to be jailed until they cooperate, and any children still in their home need to be removed and processed for identification so that they cannot do this to another one of their kids. 

No, I'm not against home births (though I think the people who opt for them are gambling the life of both mother and baby, with how fast things can go critically wrong), nor am I against homeschooling.  What's gotten my back up in this case is that the parents are purposefully and maliciously crippling their daughter's chances at creating a successful life away from them.