UPDATE:
VICTORY!
https://lupenet.org/2016/07/victory-birth-certificates-case/
After a year of litigation, local actions, and over 48,000 petition signatures calling on the state to end this discriminatory policy, we won! Thanks to all those who signed petitions, attended actions, and otherwise supported this campaign. Read more about this victory here.
Original story:
Texas is denying birth certificates to U.S.-born, citizen children of parents who are undocumented, and by doing so, is undermining the guarantee that all our U.S.-born children will unquestionably be citizens of the United States of America.
We all value the guarantee that our U.S.-born children will unquestionably be U.S. citizens and that they will have the constitutional freedoms and protections that citizenship entails.
Texas is undermining that guarantee by denying birth certificates to U.S.-born, citizen children of parents who are undocumented. Without a birth certificate, these citizen children won’t be able to access basic rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens. They face barriers to enrollment in school. Without their birth certificate, parents are unable to prove their U.S. citizen children are their own. If deported with their parents, these children cannot return to the U.S., their own country. This practice is designed to punish undocumented parents and call into question the citizenship of their U.S.-born children.
Questioning the citizenship of U.S. citizen children born to immigrant parents erodes our constitutional freedoms and protections, causes instability for parents and children, and undermines the guarantee that all of our children will unquestionably be citizens. Join us in calling on the State of Texas to stop denying birth certificates to children of immigrants.
Texas is denying birth certificates to US-born, citizen children of immigrants. Sign the petition: change.org/txbirthcertificates
The Constitution says that children born in the U.S. are granted full citizenship; it’s not up to Texas to deny that right. That's why we're gathering signatures from all across our state and country telling Texas leaders to stop denying birth certificates to children of immigrants. Texas Department of State Health Services must act in accordance with the 14th Amendment and stop denying birth certificates to U.S.-born children, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Other states make it possible by allowing parents without access to official state identification to present a range of documents, like the consular card or sworn statements from family or friends. Texas can and should do the same.
