Some Counties In Texas Actually Are Denying Birthright Citizenship

[Demeter]

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/09/18/3702996/texas-immigrant-birth-certificates/

Since 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump released his immigration policy plan to end granting citizenship to U.S.-citizen children born to undocumented immigrants, other GOP candidates have become remarkably supportive of this hard-line stance. Many scholars point out that it’s unclear how this policy would work in practice. It would likely take an act of Congress or a constitutional amendment to overrule the current birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment, it would be incredibly expensive to implement, and the number of babies being born to undocumented parents is already on the decline.

Nonetheless, GOP candidates eager to end birthright citizenship need look no further than Texas, where local country registrars have started to make that situation a reality for hundreds of immigrant parents living along the border.

In the Lone Star state, undocumented immigrants say they’ve been denied birth certificates for their children since 2013. Without that official document, it’s difficult for them to enroll their child in other programs, like Medicaid or day care, or even get baptized...

[struggle4progress]

1. IIRC the birth certificates are issued but copies aren't supplied without adequate proof of identity

Immigrants Fight Texas’ Birth Certificate Rules
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
SEPT. 17, 2015

... Texas has not directly challenged the citizenship of the children, which is granted by the 14th Amendment to anyone born in the United States. Many of them have birth certificates in the state’s database ... In court papers, lawyers for Texas disputed some of the claims made by those denied birth certificates, arguing that not having a copy of a birth certificate does not prevent a child from attending school or qualifying for Medicaid. And they say state policies do not discriminate against immigrants but are meant to ensure that birth records do not fall into the wrong hands ... Illegal immigrants and their lawyers said local Texas registrars used to accept an ID card with a photograph issued to an immigrant by a foreign consulate. The matrícula, as the Mexican version of the consular ID is known, has been used by illegal immigrants to open bank accounts in Texas and receive other services. Although official Texas policy prohibited the use of consular IDs to obtain birth certificates, the prohibition was not strictly enforced until about 2013 ... Illegal immigrants in other states do not appear to have had similar problems with birth certificates. New Mexico accepts the consular ID cards that Texas prohibits. California officials said they did not have any policies on the use of consular IDs to obtain birth certificates. Although Arizona does not accept consular IDs, officials there said they work with those who lack valid ID, including allowing witnesses who know the parent and who have proper ID to take part in the application process. In Nevada, one of the accepted IDs is a hospital birth record, which many of the Texas families have but the state does not accept ...

[Igel]

3. Yup.

It's the ol' "terra! terra! Be afraid!" part of the nervous system kicking in when confronted with insufficient data to evaluate a false claim.

When somebody really wants to believe the worst, when it's necessary to fortify the wrong conclusions they hold to, they'll almost certainly find a way.

[Marrah_G]

2. what recourse do they have?

Is there a federal department that would deal with this?

[struggle4progress]

4. There's a lawsuit underway