Immigration In US: Mexico Urges Texas To Stop Denying Children Of Undocumented Immigrants Citizenship

Mexican officials have warned Texas that the state will jeopardize its relationship with the country if American citizenship continues to be denied to children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, reported the Houston Sun Times. The Mexican government filed a brief Monday in support of immigrant parents who sued the state after their American-born children were not granted birth certificates even though they had shown identification cards issued by the Mexican Consulate.

“[It] not only jeopardizes their dignity and well-being, but could threaten the unique relationship between Mexico and Texas,” the Mexican government said in the brief, according to Fox News.

The country raised the point that "friendly nations" generally accept foreign passports or other forms of identification to issue birth certificates to children born in their country. The ID cards the consulate issued, and families attempted to use, contain technology that makes them more secure than most U.S. driver's licenses, said Consul Carlos González Gutiérrez from the Mexican Consulate General’s office in Austin.

“Conversely, expressions of doubt about the integrity of documents issued by a friendly country introduce a troublesome and discordant element into binational or transnational relations,” states the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of six U.S. citizen children, whose parents come from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. The families argue that the Lone Star State is going against the 14th Amendment.

Mexico has called for Texas to specify which types of identification would be acceptable to grant birth certificates.

“Our argument isn’t ‘yes matrícula, no matrícula,’ ” attorney Jennifer Harbury told the Texas Tribune. “The argument is, What will you take that people can actually get? They have to take something. [The children] were born here. They are U.S. citizens.”

The Mexican government has said that denying U.S.-born children birth certificates will impede them from being able to obtain Mexican citizenship as well, since the government requires proof of identification.