For years, Texas has been continually denying children of undocumented parents birth certificates. The state strictly prohibits parents from submitting any form of identification from foreign governments, such as the consulate of Mexico. Thus, without identification for parents, they are not able to meet the requirements to get birth certificates.
Now a group of undocumented parents have filed a lawsuit against Texas.
These are what the “matriculas” (identification cards from the Mexico consulate look like). These identification cards were used by many undocumented as mere identification in Texas, but today they are no longer accepted. This also restricts them from the ability to get birth certificates for their children on U.S. Soil.
The lawsuit made by the parents was submitted in May, and the court in Texas recently stated that they will continue to deny birth certificates to children with undocumented parents.
This has come into great questioning. Are people’s constitutional rights being abused? The U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman stated his thoughts.
“It begs credulity for defendants to argue a birth certificate is not a vitally important document,” Pitman said. “The rights and privileges of citizenships inure to those who are citizens.”
Although to many this may seem like a simple issue, I whole-heartedly believe this is an abuse of these children’s rights. One of the main reasons individuals travel to the United States from all of Latin America is to give their children the opportunity to have an education. With the act of denying these children their birth certificates, they are taking away government benefits such as healthcare, childcare, etc. These children are even losing the right to register in school.
The American dream is no longer reachable, not even after being born on American soil. We live in a country where people believe education is key, and therefore everyone should have the opportunity to do anything, yet we are beginning to strip that right from certain individuals.
I, as well as many others, do not believe it is ethical to deny children who are born on American soil a birth certificate because their parents are from foreign countries. This land was founded by children whose parents were also from another country.
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