Texas Observer – by Melissa del Bosque
For nearly 150 years, the United States, under the 14th Amendment, has recognized people born here as citizens, regardless of whether their parents were citizens.
But Texas has other plans. In the last year, the state has refused to issue birth certificates to children who were born in Texas to undocumented parents. In May, four women filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services alleging constitutional discrimination and interference in the federal government’s authority over immigration.
Jennifer Harbury, a lawyer with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who is representing the women, said the deluge of birth certificate refusals began last winter. “I’ve never seen such a large number of women with this problem,” she says. “In the past someone might be turned away, but it was always resolved. This is something altogether new.”
According to the lawsuit, the women who requested birth certificates for their children in Cameron and Hidalgo counties were turned away because of insufficient proof of their identities. State law allows the use of a foreign ID if the mother lacks a Texas driver’s license or a U.S. passport.
But local officials, which issue birth certificates registered by the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit, told the women they would no longer accept either the matricula consular, which is a photo ID issued by the Mexican Consulate to Mexican nationals living in the U.S., or a foreign passport without a current U.S. visa. Undocumented Central American women are also being turned away because they only have a passport without a U.S. visa. “They are locking out a huge chunk of the undocumented immigrant community,” says Harbury.
Harbury believes the rash of refusals is linked to the influx of Central American families who crossed the border last summer seeking asylum. “They are targeting the undocumented population, but immigration is a federal function and not the job of the Department of State Health Services,” says Harbury. Women are unable to enroll their children in school or daycare without a birth certificate, or to authorize their child to be treated in a medical emergency. “It causes all kinds of problems,” Harbury says. “How is a woman going to prove she’s the child’s parent without a birth certificate?”
Since filing the lawsuit in late May, Harbury says they’ve received dozens of calls from women who have been refused birth certificates for their children: “The phones have been ringing off the hook.” Recently, they filed an amended lawsuit with several more plaintiffs.
James Harrington, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, is also representing the undocumented families. The legal team is seeking a court order to reinstate the use of the matricula consular and foreign passports as valid proof of identity for undocumented mothers.
“Even in the darkest hours of Texas’ history of discrimination, officials never denied birth certificates to Hispanic children of immigrants,” said Harrington in a written statement. “Everyone born in the United States is entitled to the full rights of citizenship.”
Update: In a written statement Chris Van Deusen, press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services says: “DSHS accepts a variety of documents to verify a requestor’s identification … Texas does not accept the matricula consular as valid identification because the documents used to obtain the matricula are not verified by the issuing party. Several other states and some federal agencies also do not accept the matricula as a valid form of identification for the same reason.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/children-of-immigrants-denied-citizenship/
What !!! Something is actually working in the system.
Who knew the illegal alien invasion was part of Agenda 21, emptying out Central America and Mexico of their indigenous population? (sarcasm)
Shocker. There is a guy who holds “the highest office in the land” who has no documented past worthy of holding that office, purportedly representing US. As Killary said, “What difference does it make?” I agree with her on that. It makes none. They ALL need to be punished for treason. Illegal invaders should be treated just the same, as they have taken part in our destruction despite having been used as the tool. It doesn’t make any difference as the end result is still our demise. VOTE rope, lead, brass and cordite. These are our ONLY candidates for change that will work at this point. They have made it that way and we had believed for for far too long that they were even coming close to playing by the rules.
I have much respect for people trying to improve their life. but we have buses that are scheduled on an hourly basis .there is no border.
Jennifer Harbury, a lawyer with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who is representing the women, and James Harrington, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project need to be hung for treason. Cry me a river you ILLEGAL criminals! Now go back home and “Run Tell Dat!”
GOOD! Go back to your country and come here LEGALLY, you bastards!!
Just wow! Ok, I’m mass posting this article on my FaceBook! Thank you
TheRev!
I look forward to seeing more articles like this one!
Posted to over 100 facebook pages and counting! Some with over 60,000 potential viewers. *pats self on back* This one actually had me crying with tears of joy!
:0)
One of those pages was mine. Thank You!
Another distraction. There will be a legal drama that lasts for about a month, and it will keep the minds of a million idiots occupied, and then a court will decide that all the illegal babies deserve birth certificates.
Not this time. Adam Walsh….
I can only assume these attorneys who are so opposed to a state setting its own immigration policy are also deeply opposed to the concept of sanctuary cities which refuse to enforce federal immigration law? I’m guessing Harbury and Harrington not only tolerate sanctuary cities violating federal immigration laws, but actually embrace the concept. That’s the problem with the open borders crowd. They make a mockery of federal immigration law by supporting sanctuary cities, then support federal immigration law when it benefits them.
Harbury and Harrington can prove they really care about strict adherence to federal immigration law by immediately demanding that sanctuary cities in Texas either start complying with Federal Immigration Law or lose federal and state funding. Don’t hold your breath folks. I suspect both of them strongly support the illegal concept of sanctuary cities.
“Harbury and Harrington can prove they really care about strict adherence to federal immigration law by immediately demanding that sanctuary cities in Texas either start complying with Federal Immigration Law or lose federal and state funding.”
Immaterial… they’re ATTORNEYS. Their first loyalty is to the BAR Association.
You do understand that the courts are designed for one thing, and one thing only, right?
The extraction of mammon for their masters.
Immaterial with regard to their respective legal cases of course. I just enjoy pointing out left-wing hypocrisy as often as I can.
This is yet another double standard when it comes to the left. They are against Arizona passing a law essentially stating that national immigration laws will be enforced, but perfectly fine with sanctuary cities.
Perhaps we should have sanctuary cities for conservatives who don’t want to abide by certain gun laws or perform gay marriages? Then liberals would understand why sanctuary cities simply can’t be allowed.
Not to be a bother, but the false left-right paradigm has been fully exposed on this site (continuously and repeatedly, in fact). There is no difference between the ‘left’ & the ‘right’, it’s merely an illusion of the matrix to facilitate the ushering in of the New World Order.
Below is a quote from one of my absolute favorite movies “Shooter”. What Ned Beatty says at the end is 100% TRUE.
“Senator Charles F. Meachum: You got any plans after this? You have a rather unique skill set. I’d be interested in offering you a job.
Bob Lee Swagger: Work? For you?
Senator Charles F. Meachum: It’s not really as bad as it seems. It’s all gonna be done in any case. You might as well be on the side that gets you well paid for your efforts.
Nick Memphis: And what side are you on?
Senator Charles F. Meachum: There are no sides. There’s no Sunnis and Shiites. There’s no Democrats and Republicans. There’s only HAVES and HAVE-NOTS.”
BINGO!!!
No bother at all. Think of American politics as being a pyramid. At the ground level there is an ideological continuum from left to right. There are genuine differences between left and right at the ground level. As one looks upward on the pyramid (representing progressively more elite positions of power) the differences between left and right narrow.
Trust me when I say many on the left and right at lower levels believe what they are saying. If you think you’ve taught me something by suggesting that among those truly in control there is no differences between left and right, you haven’t. I came to that conclusion long ago.
Having said that, there are important differences between us at lower levels and noting those differences is occasionally appropriate.
Mark Edward Gillar,
You contend a left-right paradigm exists at the lower levels. I say only if you are a trained slave.
The Bill of Rights is an absolute standard. Any variance from that absolute under the guise of left or right theology is a rejection of freedom.
Whatever right you feel the other person shouldn’t have for whatever reason, is a right you surrender for yourself.
So where’s the quid pro quo in this? (Had to use it…my fave line from “Silence of the Lambs”….to bad that dumba@@ lawyer isn’t named Clarice…) Sorry, Mr. Abbott…as a person who lives in Texas I simply cannot buy into the notion that you give a crap about Texans, wheelchair or no wheelchair. And I’d love to know the REAL reason you signed that Texas Gold Depository bill. Methinks you are trying to provide a vehicle for the Bushes to launder money using their billions of dollars worth of gold.
My German relatives are having all kinds of problems getting VISAs to come over and visit us for a few weeks. As far as I am concerned the entire population of Latin America can all drop dead and go straight to hell along with their $#IT SPAWNs.
This measure of denying birth certificates is only scratching at the edges a little at the problem. Getting at the problem is marching into the US chamber of commerce, corporations hiring them, Farmers hiring need to be dragged out by the hair, stripped, and loaded onto the slowest impounded Chinese freighters we can grab and sent straight to Ivory Coast and dumped into the near shore. Anyone trying to swim back tot he ship would be shot. The same fate to their entire extended families.
The invaders themselves? They need to be ejected all 50,000,000 of them from our country with extreme force. First tell them to pick up their stuff and get walking. They leave with what they came with. Give them 7 days to start walking south. Any motorist hitting them on the freeways will be granted complete immunity from prosecution. Bounties of 25 dollars would be given to any of them dead or alive if they are caught in this country after the 7 day “AMNESTY” period. Any of them trying to come into this country would be subject to being summarily shot by any American National.
American Nationals living In Mexico unless they reached american territory within the 7 days would be summarily stripped of their American National status and be without a country. Trying to reenter they would suffer the same fate as their little Mexican buddies.
It would spark a war with Mexico, but in my opinion Mexico is a deadly enemy since the beginning of our country and they need to be dealt with finally.
For those of you out there who hate Germans for whatever stupid excuses understand that Germans where here in America as colonists also for over 300 years. They are as American as the English. In fact 1/3 of Washington’s forces going into Trenton were German boys. They stuck with Washington when a lot of other people went home.
Latins come here not for what they can give to America. They come for what they can take.