The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution establishes that anyone born within the borders of the United States is a citizen and afforded the rights of a citizen. Illegal aliens have long relied upon this right to gain citizenship for their children by giving birth to them inside the country.
Now, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is embroiled in a legal challenge brought about by 19 illegal alien women who gave birth to children inside the United States. At issue is the families for the illegal aliens charge the DSHS refused to issue their babies birth certificates by stating the identification they presented was invalid.
The current state statute regarding birth certificates allows a person to use a non-US form of identification such as a passport, but the caveat is the passport must be accompanied by a valid visa. This is certainly not going to be the case with many of the Mexican nationals seeking a birth certificate for their newborns. The Texas statute has been in place for years, but only in the past two years has the state begun to strictly enforce it.
The parents of the newborns claim the state is denying their children a birth certificate because of their illegal status. The DSHS claims that they are merely refusing to accept what is known as “matricula consular”. These are special ID cards freely issued by the Mexican consulate to their citizens.
The problem is that the “matricula consular” do not undergo sufficient verification of ID for the person seeking the document. The DSHS points out that for this reason, some federal agencies also refuse to accept those ID cards.