Mexican Government Files Amicus Brief in Texas Anchor Baby Case

A group of illegal alien parents is currently suing the state of Texas because their anchor babies weren’t awarded birth certificates. (For more information, see my recent article Trump Says “Eliminate Anchor Baby Loophole”- Texas May Have Begun!).

And guess what? The Mexican government has gotten involved in the lawsuit by filing an amicus brief. What a surprise! From the Texas Tribune:

The denial of birth certificates to U.S. citizen children born to immigrant parents not only jeopardizes their dignity and well-being, but could threaten the unique relationship between Mexico and Texas, the Mexican government said in a brief tied to a lawsuit filed against the state.

What relationship between Texas and Mexico? The former is a state, the latter is a country.

The Mexican government filed its amicus brief late Monday [August 24th] in support of a coalition of undocumented parents who are suing the state of Texas after they were denied birth certificates for their children.

The brief says that “friendly nations” have a history of accepting foreign passports or government-issued IDs to facilitate the identification of a foreigner.

Mexican Government Files Brief in Birth Certificate Case, By Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune, August 25, 2015

Sorry Mexico, but the matricula consular at issue here is not equivalent to a passport. The matricula consular is being used to aid and abet Mexican illegal aliens in the United States.

“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,” the 19-page court document states.

The lawsuit is growing.

Attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid filed the lawsuit against the Department of State Health Services on behalf of six U.S. citizen children and their parents who are undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. The original complaint was filed in May and has been amended twice to include more than 30 families. La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, an immigrant rights group with about 7,000 members, has also joined the lawsuit.

And here’s another argument by the government of Mexico.

The amicus brief also claims that denying the children U.S. birth certificates also blocks their claims to Mexican citizenship. A child born to Mexican parents has that right but must show proof of identity. Infringing on that is a violation of international law, the brief states.

So if these babies don’t get U.S. birth certificates and then are sent to Mexico, does that mean the Mexican government won’t give them birth certificates either? Why don’t they just take the kiddos down to the nearest Mexican consulate? After all, the consulates can dispense birth certificates to Mexicans born in Mexico (see here), why not to Mexicans born in the United States?

Note that the amicus brief also indicates that Mexican children born in the U.S. are eligible for Mexican citizenship. In the 1990s, Mexico changed its citizenship law to permit dual citizenship, and it did so to permit Mexicans residing in the U.S. to exercise dual citizenship and vote in the U.S. For an explanation of this issue, see my article Mexico’s Nationality/Citizenship Shell Game.

Mexicans are very knowledgeable about the anchor baby phenomenon, more so than Americans, and they know exactly what they are doing. The Mexican government is closely following the whole debate about Trump, anchor babies, etc., and they are concerned about it.

But it’s our citizenship law and Mexico should have no say whatsoever in the matter. We need to plug up the anchor baby loophole, and pronto.