2016 Postmortem

bigtree

(86,013 posts) Fri Jul 24, 2015, 12:40 PM Jul 2015

Martin O'Malley: 'It's simple, Texas: Citizenship is a human right'

Martin O'Malley ?@MartinOMalley 12m12 minutes ago
It's simple, #Texas: citizenship is a human right.

related:

Texas Denies Birth Certificates To U.S.-Born Children Of Undocumented Parents

Undocumented parents in Texas are having a tough time obtaining birth certificates for their U.S.-born children, the LA Times reports.

The Lone Star state has prohibited registrars from accepting matriculas, local consulate-issued identification cards, in lieu of a U.S. driver's license or visa as a valid form of identification, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Austin. These tightened measures have made it virtually impossible for parents to obtain birth certificates for their U.S.-born children, and [has] prompted several families to file a lawsuit against the state in May.

Birth certificate denials have happened before, but the lawyers who represent the 19 parents named in the suit note an increase after the Obama administration expanded its efforts to protect millions of immigrants from deportation in 2012. "As a result of this situation, hundreds, and possibly thousands, of parents from Mexico and Central America have recently been denied birth certificates for their Texas-born children," said the suit.

Texas officials said they have always been reluctant to use consular identification cards. Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Department of State Health Services said to the LA Times that officials provide birth certificates without regard to the requestor's immigration status, but they don't accept matriculas because underlying documents are not verifiable. Texas isn't the only state to deny birth certificates to children of undocumented immigrants. Arizona lawmakers have also tried to pass measures that would make it difficult for undocumented parents to obtain birth certificates for children born in the U.S.

However, the 14th Amendment grants anyone born in the United States the right to U.S. citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the child’s parents.

Without a birth certificate, parents cannot register their children for school, youth sports teams nor can they travel outside of the country. A birth certificate is also needed to apply for everything from jobs to a driver’s license and even a marriage license. Texas's refusal to grant birth certificates to the children of undocumented immigrants directly takes away many of the rights these children deserve as U.S. citizens.

read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-denies-birth-certificates-to-us-born-children-of-undocumented-parents_55afe7c3e4b07af29d5736cb

State Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Birth Certificates

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday asked a federal district judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a state agency violated the U.S. Constitution by denying birth certificates to U.S.-citizen children of immigrant parents.

Attorneys with Paxton’s office said that the Texas Department of State Health Services, which is being sued by 17 families living in Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr counties, has sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment and cannot be sued in federal court because it has not waived that right, according to court documents.

The immunity extends to interim DSHS Commissioner Kirk Cole and State Registrar Geraldine Harris, who are also named as defendants in the suit, Paxton's office argues.

The families claim that the agency is violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by denying birth certificates to children who are, in fact, U.S. citizens.

Local vital statistics offices, which are overseen by DSHS, have refused to accept what the families argue were once acceptable forms of IDs for non-citizens, including passports and Mexican matrícula cards issued by the Mexican consulate offices throughout Texas.

“Such refusal is de facto based on the immigration status of the Plaintiff parents. The lack of a birth certificate, in turn, is causing serious harm to all plaintiffs,” the June filing states.

read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/state-asks-court-dismiss-lawsuit-over-birth-certif/

Dismissal of Birth Certificate Case Would Leave Many U.S. Citizen Children in Limbo

Efren Olivares, one of the attorneys representing families whose American-born children have been denied birth certificates, called Texas’ motion to dismiss the case this week “outrageous.” On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to dismiss the lawsuit. Paxton claims that Texas has sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment, and therefore cannot be sued unless it waives that right.

Olivares said if the case is dismissed, hundreds or possibly thousands of U.S. citizen children will be denied the benefits of citizenship. “It’s outrageous that the bottom line for them is that this case should be dismissed and these U.S. citizen children should remain without a birth certificate,” said Olivares. “I think that’s remarkable — in a bad way.”

In the last few weeks, at least eight more families have contacted Olivares and his associates to join the lawsuit, which was filed in May. The suit now includes 17 families. Olivares said he expects there will be more. So far, all of the families in the lawsuit live in Hidalgo, Cameron and Starr counties along the border. Citing state policy, local registrars denied the families birth certificates for their U.S.-born children because the parents only had a matricula consular — an official 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.

The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit is Maria Isabel Perales Serna, who as a youth immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico without authorization. Perales was able to obtain a birth certificate 14 years ago for her daughter born in Texas. On November 24, 2014, she gave birth in a McAllen hospital to her second child. She went to the vital statistics office in McAllen with her matricula consular card, her Mexican passport and the baby’s hospital records, thinking that would be more than enough to get a birth certificate for her child, as she had with her first child. But the office told Perales they no longer accepted the matricula consular or her foreign passport unless it had a current U.S. visa.

Olivares said that whether a foreign passport has a U.S. visa is irrelevant — it’s a question for federal immigration officials, he said, and not under the state’s jurisdiction. He also noted that Texas law considers an official foreign ID with a photo to be an acceptable form of identification. “The law would have to say, ‘with the exception of the matricula consular,’ but it doesn’t,” Olivares said.

read more: http://www.texasobserver.org/texas-asks-court-to-dismiss-birth-certificate-lawsuit/