U.S. Sistrict Court: Texas Can Refuse To Issue Birth Certificates To Illegals’ Parents

Mexican IDs ruled insecure documents

Texas officials may continue to refuse to issue birth certificates to illegal immigrant parents who aren’t able to show valid identification, a federal court ruled Friday, dealing a major blow to Mexican advocates who’d said the policy was in effect stripping them of citizenship.

Judge Robert L. Pitman

Judge Robert L. Pitman said the Matricula Consular cards issued by Mexican consulates to their citizens in the U.S. — chiefly to those in the country illegally — aren’t secure, so Texas is able to refuse to accept them as primary identification when a parent requests a birth certificate.

The court said that could change if the challengers are able to offer more evidence, but for now the judge ruled Texas can continue to insist on secure documents, and to refuse to accept the Matricula Consular cards as primary ID.

A woman who is in the country illegally shows the footprints 

of her daughter who was born in the United States but was

 denied a birth certificate

“Although the plaintiffs have provided evidence which raises grave concerns regarding the treatment of citizen children born to immigrant parents, this case requires additional determinations which can be made only upon development and presentation of an evidentiary record which thoroughly explores the facts and circumstances of the issues raised in this case,” Judge Pitman, sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, wrote in a 27-page order.

The case comes at a time when birthright citizenship — the automatic grant of American citizenship to most persons born on U.S. soil, including to illegal immigrant mothers — has become a hot political topic. The case doesn’t directly challenge that policy, though the plaintiffs said the effect of not being able to obtain their children’s birth certificates was the same as having citizenship denied.

Texas restricts who can request a birth certificate. Parents or grandparents are approved requesters, but must be able to prove their relationship to the child, which means establishing their identity.

That’s difficult for many illegal immigrants who have no valid American ID, but who had hoped to use the Matricula Consular cards, which the Mexican government issues to help its citizens, and illegal immigrants in particular, gain access to services in the U.S. (emphasis mine)

Read the rest of the story HERE.

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