Thread: (Anchor Baby) Stuck in a Free Country

YES!!!

Stuck in a free country

Federal government places the burden of proof of citizenship on passport applicants

July 20, 2008 - 10:59PM
By Kevin Sieff/The Brownsville Herald

When Lupita Sanchez applied for a passport, she didn't expect that her U.S. citizenship would be called into question.

But three months after completing her passport application - 38 years after she was born in downtown Brownsville - Sanchez received a shocking letter from the U.S. Department of State.

After explaining that her application had been closed, the letter states, "Once you obtain U.S. citizenship, you may execute another application for a U.S. passport."

Sanchez was incredulous. She has been voting and paying taxes in the United States for 20 years.

But along with hundreds of other South Texans delivered by midwives, the validity of Sanchez's birth certificate, and her U.S. citizenship, is being called into question.

"I'm being discriminated against because my parents were unable to pay for a doctor," Sanchez said.

The government suspects that as many as 15,000 midwife-granted birth certificates were issued fraudulently in South Texas. Between 1960 to 2008, more than 75 South Texas midwives were convicted of signing birth certificates for children they did not deliver.

In its attempt to cull American-born applicants from those applying with fraudulent documents, the State Department has put the burden of proof on passport applicants. Many of them have not been able to come up with the necessary and often obscure documentation. Without their passports, they will be unable to visit relatives in Mexico, starting in June 2009.

Aside from their delivery by midwives, the victims of the government's crackdown have little in common. Some are U.S. Border Patrol agents and Army veterans. Some are third- and fourth-generation Americans.
But many, like Lupita Sanchez, were the first members of their families born in the United States.

Sanchez's father, a migrant laborer, put away money for months to pay for a midwife in downtown Brownsville. When her mother was nearly nine months pregnant, she crossed the border illegally from Matamoros to Brownsville with $200 and enough clothes to last her several weeks.

Sanchez was delivered to a midwife less than a half-mile from the Rio Grande. She became a citizen upon birth because of a provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment grants American-born babies with citizenship, even if their parents are undocumented.

"Right now you see people coming (to the U.S.), to have their babies and rely on the government to pay for their Medicaid," she said. "I'm proud to say that my parents didn't ask for any help. They crossed the border and paid for a midwife with their own money."

Considering that circumstance, she said, the government's specific requests for proof of her birth are absurd.

One request is for a newspaper clipping from 1970 announcing Sanchez's birth.

"Here we are talking about low-income families, and they want a newspaper announcement of a baby's birth?" she asked. "Our families had enough trouble paying for a midwife ... they wouldn't have the money to pay for a newspaper announcement."

Sanchez, now a community health worker at Proyecto Juan Diego in Cameron Park, has a wide smile that seldom leaves her face. But the resentment she feels concerning her current predicament runs deep.

As an American citizen, she was able to secure legal permanent residency for both of her parents, three decades after her birth.

Now the status of her own citizenship is uncertain.

In attempting to confirm the validity of their birth certificates, many passport applicants have come up against a series of bureaucratic roadblocks.

Instead of denying midwife-delivered applicants outright, the passport office sends one request for information after another, each allotting between 30 and 60 days for a response.

"To continue processing of your passport application, it will be necessary for you to submit a combination of early public records created prior to or at the time of your birth," the passport office's letter reads.

Along with a newspaper announcement, suggested documents include records of pre-natal medical care performed in the United States, a mother's border crossing card issued before the time of the applicant's birth, or a parent's detention order issued by news/" class="autolink">immigration services prior to the birth.

Many applicants who are able to secure some, but not all, of the suggested documents receive additional requests from the passport office. If the allotted time passes, or if an applicant can't come up with obscure documentation, the application is closed.

"It's another step in the draconian crackdown that is ongoing," said Lisa Brodyaga, a Harlingen-based immigration attorney. "And citizens have gotten swept up in it, at least citizens of Hispanic origin."
In April, Brodyaga filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of nine men and women who were delivered to midwives in South Texas, and whose passport applications were closed by the U.S. Passport Office.

A year ago, Brodyaga and other immigration attorneys in the Rio Grande Valley had never heard of a case like Lupita Sanchez's. Now, cumulatively, they represent hundreds of people fighting to prove that they were born with midwives on the American side of the border.

Correspondence between applicants and the U.S. Passport Office has carried on for almost two years in some cases, but is rarely resolved.

Brodyaga said the barrage of requests serves a single purpose.

"(Federal officials) think they can avoid a judicial review if they don't deny an applicant in the formal sense," she said.

In other words, if an applicant abandons his case after two years of failed attempts to prove his American birth, he hasn't technically been denied a passport. And without a formal denial, the applicant is not guaranteed a review of his case.

Such a review, Brodyaga said, could be the only way to establish a clear standard for applicants attempting to prove the validity of their birth certificates. A judge would determine which materials constitute evidence that an individual was, in fact, born in the United States.

Without the delineation of a clear standard, midwife-delivered applicants could spend hundreds of dollars, and a number of years, in a futile attempt to substantiate their cases.

In Brownsville, that is exactly what has been happening.

For the last year, the Brownsville Independent School District's central building and the City Secretary's office have been full of people looking for early school records, tax receipts and any other proof of residency.

Almost all of them are passport applicants, looking to prove their cases to the passport office.

"Since last August, transcript requests have been at 550 per month at BISD's Records Management Department," said Drue Brown, a school district spokeswoman. "That is a 50 percent increase over the same period the year before. The records management staff attributes this increase to people who need information in order to apply for a U.S. passport."

The records department has become an unexpected meeting place for people fighting to prove the legitimacy of their birth certificates.

"I started talking to the people next to me in line, and we realized that we were all in the exact same boat," said Mireya Salgado, a Porter High School English teacher delivered by a midwife in 1952. "We were all born to midwives in Brownsville, and we're all fighting to get our passports before June."

Others have traveled from disparate corners of the United States to the Valley - the place of their birth - to hunt for obscure documents.

Mary Saldaña, a practicing midwife in Brownsville for 39 years, has provided photocopies of her hand-scrawled birth log to men and women who have come from North Carolina, Florida and Massachusetts.

It's not typical, she said, for a midwife to see a string of the babies she delivered 30 years after delivering them. The interactions these days come out of necessity.

"I keep perfect records," she said. "I am sure this will be enough to get these people their passports."

But Saldaña can't provide proof of her clients' pre-natal care or printed birth announcements, which are two items the Bureau of Consular Affairs points to as critical proof of American birth. Without those documents, and even with them, applicants are guaranteed nothing.

Still, Saldaña's clients are lucky to have access to any records at all. Some passport applicants, who are upwards of 80 years old, are being asked for documents from the 1920s and '30s. Their midwives have been dead for as long as 50 years.

For those applicants, whose only supplemental documentation is antiquated, the burden of proof is overwhelming.

"These are people who were crossing the border with baptismal records (in the 1930s)," said Jaime Diaz, a Brownsville immigration attorney. "But now the federal standard expects that everyone was born in a hospital and has the same medical records. That's not the standard here."

Lupita Sanchez's parents had no plans to raise their daughter in the United States. After she was born, they carried her back to Matamoros, where she grew up with three brothers.

If she wanted to move to the States when she was adult, they told her, her citizenship granted her that option.

But when Sanchez was 12 and ready to enter junior high school, the Matamoros public school system asked for her Mexican birth certificate. Without proof of her citizenship, administrators told her, she wouldn't be able to attend public school.

Given no alternative, she left Matamoros, and her parents, to live with cousins and attend middle school in Brownsville. She learned English. She moved around the state of Texas. But after a few years, she couldn't stand being away from her immediate family.

When she was 15, Sanchez dropped out of school and moved back to Mexico.

"Back then, I was punished for not being a Mexican citizen," she said. "Now it's like I'm being told that I'm not American either."

Sanchez is 38 now. Although she's living in Brownsville, she crosses the bridge into Mexico almost every week.

Her job as a community health worker requires that she make weekly trips to Matamoros. Because she lacks health insurance, Sanchez visits physicians across the border. Her brothers and sisters - whom she visits often - live throughout northern Mexico.

Asked what will happen if she's unable to cross the border, Sanchez's wide smile disappears.

"It's like I'm stuck," she said. "Stuck in a free country."



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But along with hundreds of other South Texans delivered by midwives, the validity of Sanchez's birth certificate, and her U.S. citizenship, is being called into question.

That's how our system is SUPPOSE to work! Glad to see some agency doing it's job.

The government suspects that as many as 15,000 midwife-granted birth certificates were issued fraudulently in South Texas. Between 1960 to 2008, more than 75 South Texas midwives were convicted of signing birth certificates for children they did not deliver.

And this is why you are having trouble, blame it on your Country not mine!.

Sanchez's father, a migrant laborer, put away money for months to pay for a midwife in downtown Brownsville. When her mother was nearly nine months pregnant, she crossed the border illegally from Matamoros to Brownsville with $200 and enough clothes to last her several weeks.

So, was it worth it? Your parents are criminals huh?

Sanchez was delivered to a midwife less than a half-mile from the Rio Grande. She became a citizen upon birth because of a provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment grants American-born babies with citizenship, even if their parents are undocumented.

Undocumented? You must mean illegal. Hey your parents stole you some good AMERICAN years, quit your bitching.

"I'm proud to say that my parents didn't ask for any help. They crossed the border and paid for a midwife with their own money."

So shut up and be happy for what you stole from us taxpayers all the years you squatted here.


As an American citizen, she was able to secure legal permanent residency for both of her parents, three decades after her birth.

Well isn't that special!


Without the delineation of a clear standard, midwife-delivered applicants could spend hundreds of dollars, and a number of years, in a futile attempt to substantiate their cases.

GOOD!

"Mary Saldaña, a practicing midwife in Brownsville for 39 years, has provided photocopies of her hand-scrawled birth log to men and women who have come from North Carolina, Florida and Massachusetts.

Is she illegal too?

If she wanted to move to the States when she was adult, they told her, her citizenship granted her that option.


Welcome to America! How's it going so far?

But when Sanchez was 12 and ready to enter junior high school, the Matamoros public school system asked for her Mexican birth certificate. Without proof of her citizenship, administrators told her, she wouldn't be able to attend public school.

Of Course! Mexico has a wonderful Immigration policy, I wish we had it, then we wouldn't have to put up with all this crap and the destruction of America.



When she was 15, Sanchez dropped out of school and moved back to Mexico.

Typical

She is an anchor baby, maybe; and so are the Medicare illegal babies.

All must go - exit this country

She probably has the name of one of the convicted mid-wives on her birth certificates.

My child just got her passport in the spring of 2008; and they asked about what country the parents were born. I believe.

So this woman has explaining to do. All these illegal anchor babies are in the same boat. Jokes on them

But this illegal has been voting

vmonkey56 wrote:

She is an anchor baby and so are the Medicare illegal babies.

How do we know that she is an anchor baby? There doesn't seem to be any real evidence to back her claim of being born in the United States. I certainly wouldn't call her parents credible witnesses. Sounds like the court is still out on this one, Lupita could be an illegal alien. Her parents wouldn't be the first pair of illegals to scam the system.

I'm proud to say that my parents didn't ask for any help.

No, they just broke the law, knowingly and willingly. Now you get to pay for their crimes.

Right now you see people coming (to the U.S.), to have their babies and rely on the government to pay for their Medicaid," she said. "I'm proud to say that my parents didn't ask for any help. They crossed the border and paid for a midwife with their own money."

Oh, and I suppose you think your parents are some kind of heros or role models! Your parents were still illegal invaders and they came here with the specific intent to give birth to you on US Soil so as to exploit the 14th amendment. This is substantiated by this quote:

Lupita Sanchez's parents had no plans to raise their daughter in the United States. After she was born, they carried her back to Matamoros, where she grew up with three brothers.

If she wanted to move to the States when she was adult, they told her, her citizenship granted her that option.

As far as I'm concerned, you stole your American citizenship and it should be revoked!!!

Reggiemay, that is so true. Someone down the line will eventually reap what they sow. It would seem that has come full circle with many of the adult "anchor babies". They need to stop blaming America (notice how she did not fault Mexico for questioning her and yet somehow America is wrong for wanting verification?) and start blaming their parents.

My grandfther would have had a problem with ths right now he was born in 1893 and he had no birth certificate only a church baptismal certificate. He did become an Immigration Inspector so I can see him resonate with the Border Patrol Agents in the article.

Sins of the parents. Sorry, but that's what happens. What parents do can greatly affect the lives of their children and even their grandchildren. It's now their responsibility to own up to what their parents did and make the situation right. Maybe that entails leaving here and going back to their homeland. Maybe that means they need to apply for citizenship.