Birth records suit centers on parents’ ID

On its surface, a lawsuit filed in May by a group of undocumented immigrants who have been unable to obtain birth certificates for their U.S.-born children seems cut-and-dry.

The Constitution grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”

The 19 non-citizen parents who live in the Rio Grande Valley say Texas is essentially denying their sons and daughters U.S. citizenship and benefits associated with it, because the state is refusing to issue the children’s birth records to their parents. They say they need the documents to apply for Medicaid and register children for school, among other things.

But the citizenship of the 23 American-born children named in the suit, and thousands of others throughout the state in similar circumstances, is not really in dispute.

The issue is whether or not the state should provide the private information contained in birth certificates to people who lack certain forms of identification.

The complaint states the parents seeking birth documents for their children in Cameron and Hidalgo counties were refused the certificates due to insufficient proof of their identities.

Primary IDs, such as a driver’s license or U.S. passport, are available only to U.S. citizens or legal residents. But some secondary forms of ID, such as national identity cards from Central America or Mexican electoral cards, can be used in combination with another form of verifiable identification to obtain a birth certificate.

As the suit explains, photo identification cards called matriculas, issued through local consular offices, have also been acceptable secondary ID.

For reasons that some argue are political, that policy changed a number of years ago. Enforcement was irregular until 2013, when the Department of State Health Services, which supervises local registrars who issue birth certificates, decided to more strictly monitor compliance.

Some county clerks — including Tarrant County’s — still accept matricula as a form of secondary ID to obtain a birth certificate.

But the ID issue means some immigrant parents in some counties have been unable to obtain birth certificates for their U.S.-citizen children.

No child born in Texas should be denied the protections citizenship affords.

The state has good reason to protect the private information contained in birth certificates, but it must do so through consistent policy enforcement.

The underlying issue — the nation’s broken immigration system — won’t be resolved without bipartisan action from Congress.

Until that happens, Texas must make reasonable accommodations to ensure that all children born within its borders enjoy the benefits of their U.S. citizenship.

This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Birth records suit centers on parents’ ID."