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Midwife birth certificates tied to immigration problems alongTexas border
On Jun 6, 9:10*am, Metspitzer > wrote:
> (CNN) -- The women's lives have taken different paths since the days > they were born. > > Brenda Vazquez is a 29-year-old elementary school teacher in > Matamoros, Mexico. Laura Castro lives across the border in > Brownsville, Texas. She is a 32-year-old housewife who helps her > husband manage several stores. > > They share one thing in common: Both say they were delivered by > midwives in south Texas, but pressured by U.S. Border Patrol agents to > deny their U.S. citizenship. > > Their problems began, according to attorney Jaime Diez, when a group > of midwives along the U.S.-Mexico border were found guilty of selling > birth certificates to people who were not born in the United States. > > "Now all the midwives in the area are suspected of committing fraud," > said Diez, who said his office regularly sees cases of people > delivered by midwives in Texas. Some of them are struggling to get > passports because officials question the validity of their birth > certificates, he said. Others have been deported and had their > identification documents confiscated at the border, he said. > > Vazquez, who Diez is representing in a federal lawsuit filed last > week, said she was intimidated into signing a document swearing she > was not a U.S. citizen at a border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, > last year. > > "He said, 'You'd better cooperate with me, because if you don't, > you're going to jail. I had to lie and say that I was not a citizen. > ... I was quite scared. I was crying," the second-grade teacher said. > > A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said he could not > comment about Vazquez's case or other such cases "due to pending legal > action." > > Border patrol agents are "obligated to ensure that documentation > presented to establish citizenship is proper and correct and was > issued to the person presenting the documents," spokesman Bill Brooks > said in a statement. > > A 2012 report from the Texas Office of the Inspector General said a > fraud investigation had been "substantiated" and Vazquez's birth > record had been flagged, noting Vazquez's signed confession and the > fact that officials found birth certificates for Vazquez in both the > United States and Mexico. The report said the case would not be > prosecuted because it was beyond the statute of limitations. > > Vazquez said her parents obtained the Mexican birth certificate so she > could study in Mexico. > > Vazquez said she has never lived in the United States, but wants to > fight to regain her citizenship. > > "With crime as it is in Mexico, something might happen, and as a > citizen I would go live there," she said. > > Laura Castro said she faced a similar situation with her mother and > sister at the same border crossing in 2009. > > "My sister got desperate and signed the paper," Castro said. > > A border patrol agent told her that her mother had admitted to buying > false identification documents for the family. > > "He kept asking me the same thing, and I replied the same thing, that > I was a citizen. ... I said I was not going to sign because I did > nothing wrong, and they let me go. ... They sent me back to Mexico," > she said. > > Nearly a year later, authorities returned Castro her U.S. passport > after she filed a lawsuit, she said. > > But Castro said she remains frustrated. > > "We were very humiliated. We were treated like criminals," she said. > > The issue has come up before. In 2008, the ACLU sued the federal > government on behalf of nine people, arguing that authorities were > unfairly discriminating against passport applicants. > > "For countless Latinos who were delivered by midwives in the Southwest > ... trying to obtain a passport has become an exercise in futility," > the ACLU said in a statement at the time. "Although midwifery has been > a common practice for more than a century, particularly in rural and > other traditionally underserved communities, the U.S. government has > imposed unsurpassable hurdles on midwife-delivered Latinos to prove > their citizenship and eligibility for U.S. passports -- even when > their citizenship has already been established in the past." > > In a 2009 settlement, the State Department agreed to a new set of > procedures for such passport applications. > > But the settlement said the department denied the ACLU's accusations, > and noted that "there has been significant fraud by midwives and other > birth attendants certifying births as occurring in the United States > when they have not occurred in the United States." > > Diez said U.S. authorities need to do more to address the problem. > > "If they doubt that a person was born here and they can't criminally > charge them, then give them a process in which they can send their > documents to be investigated, give them a chance to be before a judge > with a lawyer, and in which there could be a process in which they > make things right. That's how it should be when we are talking about > the citizenship of someone," he said. > > http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/us/tex...ives/index.htm... Dirty, filthy, beaner scum. |
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