Are Texas-born children being denied citizenship?

[TexasTowelie]

Everyone born in Texas has a birth record filed with the state and is a U.S. citizen.

But since January 2014, three months after Ellie was born in a children’s hospital in rural Edinburg, the state of Texas has denied her mother’s request for a certified copy of her birth certificate. State officials have repeatedly refused to accept Juana’s Mexican consular card or passport as valid identification, effectively denying the child proof of her identity.

Juana is living in the country without permission and asked that the American-Statesman not use her last name or the real name of her daughter for fear of reprisals.

The denial of a copy of her child’s birth certificate is a problem Juana could share with hundreds of immigrant families in the Rio Grande Valley, more than 25 of whom are suing the Texas Department of State Health Services in Austin. The families say that in prohibiting certain forms of identification in the application for a birth certificate, the agency is depriving Texas-born children their citizenship rights based on the immigration status of their parents.

Read more: http://specials.mystatesman.com/texas-birth-certificates/

ETA: This is a lengthy article that you will need to scroll through to see it all.

[Gothmog]

1. There are lawsuits contesting these denials

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Absolutely unconstitutional.

Fourteenth Amendment!!!

[Kablooie]

3. Yeah! All those evil Democrats who ignore the sacred text of the constitution.

Republicans scream about the left doesnt follow the constitution and then they decide children born here can't be citizens, the presidency can take religion into consideration, Supreme Court laws can be ignored with impunity if you don't like them.

Hypocrisy is a badge of honor for them.
Denying reality, being wildly hypocritical and letting hatred be your primary moral value are the foundational tenets of the new right.

[ashling]

4. This does not deny them citizenship

Admittedly, I have not read the whole article - which I intend to do - but I wanted to give my take on this question.

No one's citizenship has been denied.

That, in fact, may be the ultimate goal of the Teahadists in the Texas state or local government in denying birth certificates, citizenship is conferred not by a birth certificate issued by the state. It is conferred by the U>S> Constitution, which is the law of the land.

During the the voter id turmoil we heard of older persons who were not able to vote because they could not get a voter id card for various reasons. There were specific incidents where an individual was born at home and never got a birth certificate. The fact that they did not have a birth certificate, but no one was saying that they were not citizens and should be deported.

The issuance aof a birth certificate is an administrative matter. A birth certificate is prima facie evidence that a person was born on a certain date at a certain place. It is not the fact itself, nor the only evidence of that fact.

Admittedly, lack of one may make make it difficult or impossible to access all of the rights of citizenship that a person is due under the Constitution. Access to those rights will undoubtedly be delayed.

The question of whether the state has the right to deny this certificate to someone born here is another question. In my view, the state is wrong to deny a birth certificate to anyone who is born within the state.

The only piece of paper necessary to confer citizenship is the Constitution of the United States.

[TexasProgresive]

5. If you don't have a birth certificate in Texas

you are de facto a non-citizen. One can't vote, can't get a driver's license or a host of things. You are in a legal limbo almost a non-person.

[ashling]

7. I agree

my point may be nuanced.

[cannabis_flower]

6. It seems..

that anyone born in a hospital in the United States should be able to get a birth certificate. Being born at home with a midwife might make it harder to prove you were born here. But if you were born in a hospital there is no reason not to give you a birth certificate.