Undocumented immigrant parents refused birth certificates for citizen children, suit alleges
By Aaron Nelsen
May 27, 2015 Updated: May 27, 2015 7:30pm
WESLACO — Immigrant families seeking birth certificates for their children born in the United States have been spurned in recent months by Texas officials who refuse to recognize as valid Mexico consular-issued identification, according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Austin.
Attorneys representing six U.S.-born children and their parents allege the Texas Department of State Health Services denied birth certificates to children on the border whose parents lack citizenship or legal status.
“Clearly, the intent here is to deny birth certificates to citizens who are born to mothers who don’t yet have a valid immigration status,” said Jennifer Harbury, an attorney with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.
“They are discriminating against the U.S.-born children to punish them for the way the parents entered the country.”
The civil suit filed by the legal aid group and the Texas Civil Rights Project contends that an internal policy of the Texas Department of State Health Services has directed its employees along the border to decline as acceptable an identification card, also known as the Matricula Consular, issued by Mexico through its consulate offices.
The suit asks for a declaratory judgment or an injunction that blocks the state policy.
Attorneys also contend the state is interfering with federal immigration policy.
The state agency Wednesday said its policy to require more than the Matricula Consular to verify identity has been in place since 2008.
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and other federal agencies do not recognize (Matricula Consular) as proper identification or consider it to be a reliable form of identification,” said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for health services agency. “This is largely because the issuing consulate doesn’t verify or authenticate source documents.”
Attorneys for the families say the state never enforced its policy until last year when a surge of pregnant women and unaccompanied children fleeing Central America poured into the Rio Grande Valley.
Soon after, people from Brownsville to El Paso said officials with the Vital Statistics Unit, the state office responsible for issuing birth certificates, began denying the applications of immigrant parents in the country illegally.
It can be difficult for undocumented immigrants in Texas to demonstrate parentage for the purpose of obtaining a birth certificate.
A parent must prove legal status in the country or provide a current voter registration card, which many people do not have.
Without a birth certificate for their children, parents face significant barriers to enroll them in school or give consent for medical care.
A citizen may request their own birth certificate with a driver’s license, or a Social Security card and recent utility bill, for example, but to acquire those documents often calls for a birth certificate.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Harbury said. “There are many more families out there that haven’t gotten birth certificates for their children.”
The lawsuit comes as a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week to keep on hold President Barack Obama’s immigration policies to shield up to 5 million immigrants from deportation and provide them with work permits.
Obama’s immigration plan also includes deportation protections for parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, which had been scheduled to begin May 19.
“A birth certificate is necessary to apply” for deportation deferral, said Efrén C. Olivares, an attorney with the South Texas Civil Rights Project. “Without it, a person has no proof that he or she has a U.S. citizen child and cannot apply.”
Texas is the lead state among 26 that sued to stop Obama’s expansion of immigration policies and has won a temporary injunction to block them.
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