Tag Archives: undocumented immigrants Texas

Texas, Texas Politics

Texas Government Risks Treason By Denying United States Citizens’ Birth Rights

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As astoundingly diverse as we all may be, members of the human race do share some common denominators.  Every single one of us that is living or ever had the opportunity to live, shares this basic experience… we were born.

Duh, right?? Obviously not that much of a shocker.  But if you stop to think about it for a second, this information being a known fact has huge implications that impact the rest of our lives.  Especially with regards to citizenship– where we enter this planet also determines in essence who we belong to. Per the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, if a person is born on American soil, they are American.  No ifs, ands or buts…

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yet for some strange reason, members of the Texas government seem to think they are above the law.  As Melissa del Bosque of the Texas Observer reports, there is some disturbing news coming from the Texas-Mexico border…

For nearly 150 years, the United States, under the 14th Amendment, has recognized people born here as citizens, regardless of whether their parents were citizens.

But Texas has other plans. In the last year, the state hasrefused to issue birth certificates to children who were born in Texas to undocumented parents. In May, four women filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services alleging constitutional discrimination and interference in the federal government’s authority over immigration.

Jennifer Harbury, a lawyer with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who is representing the women, said the deluge of birth certificate refusals began last winter. “I’ve never seen such a large number of women with this problem,” she says. “In the past someone might be turned away, but it was always resolved. This is something altogether new.”

According to the lawsuit, the women who requested birth certificates for their children in Cameron and Hidalgo counties were turned away because of insufficient proof of their identities. State law allows the use of a foreign ID if the mother lacks a Texas driver’s license or a U.S. passport.

But local officials, which issue birth certificates registered by the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit, told the women they would no longer accept either the matricula consular, which is a photo ID issued by the Mexican Consulate to Mexican nationals living in the U.S., or a foreign passport without a current U.S. visa. Undocumented Central American women are also being turned away because they only have a passport without a U.S. visa. “They are locking out a huge chunk of the undocumented immigrant community,” says Harbury.

By refusing to issue the birth certificates, these officials under direction of the state government, are technically committing treason against the United States of America.   It matters not what Texas’ opinion of the parents may be.  If they give birth to their child in the United States, the child is an American citizen, and therefore has the right to a birth certificate.  Denying Americans their citizenship has often been classified as an act of treason, and this case is no different.

Whoever is responsible for this catastrophe needs to be brought to justice, and these young Americans must not be denied their rights any longer.  Let’s hope that Attorney General Loretta Lynch or someone else from the Obama Administration gets involved.  For all the yelling and screaming that some people in Texas politics do about defending the constitution, it’s quite sad and shameful that they turn a blind eye to it now.

hosptx

(photo credit:  Harlingen Economic Development Corporation)

Texas Politics

Dan Patrick’s Attack Ad… Against Rick Perry??

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Like he did in the recent Lieutenant Gubernatorial debate against Democratic candidate Leticia Van de Putte, Republican Dan Patrick has decided to double down on anti-immigrant rhetoric during this year’s election cycle. A new ad by Patrick correctly says that Senator Van de Putte “wrote the LAW giving in-state tuition to”… well you heard  what they said, but Texas Leftist happens to know that PEOPLE are not illegal, even if their actions sometimes are.  The point here?  In order for that in-state tuition provision to become law, it had to be signed by a Republican Governor because that’s who was in office when the law was passed.  As it turns out, Governor Rick Perry not only signed the law, which has gone on to help thousands of individuals obtain their education, but he supports that law to this day.

As a result, Dan Patrick is so far to the Right, he is now running against Rick Perry. And you can be sure that Patrick is also running far to the Right of what most Texas voters believe as well.  Here’s more on the Republicans he’s left behind from the National Journal…

While Republican Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry prioritized Hispanic outreach and consistently rejected polarizing immigration policies, Patrick—and like-minded new state GOP leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz—are steering Texas Republicans sharply rightward on these issues. Patrick ousted incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a GOP primary this year, mostly behind promises to toughen enforcement at the Mexican border and to repeal the policy of providing in-state public college tuition to young people brought to the U.S. illegally—a plan that the outgoing Gov. Perry signed and still defends.

[…]

Texas Republicans today strike very different notes. Patrick, a state senator and talk-radio host, is the most inflammatory. He has described illegal immigration as an “invasion” and warned that undocumented immigrants “are bringing Third World diseases with them.”

[…]

A procession of prominent Texas Republican Hispanics like state Rep. Jason Villalba has publicly condemned Patrick’s approach. Likewise, Bush’s nephew, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who is the Republican nominee for land commissioner in Texas, has joined Perry in saying he still supports in-state tuition for undocumented students. Greg Abbott, the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, is spending heavily to court Hispanics and has also kept his distance from Patrick’s most volatile rhetoric.

Greg Abbott may sound more sympathetic than the Lt. Gov. candidate, but you can be sure that he wouldn’t hesitate to sign some of these same vile ideas into law.  Both candidates at the top of the Texas Republican ticket are proving this year that any common sense once held by their party is diminishing quickly.

In a way, voters should be thankful that Patrick has revealed his true viewpoint, as it gives everyone a clear choice for the Lieutenant Governor’s race. The Republican… excuse me… TEApublican candidate is so far away from his party that he couldn’t care less how many real Texas families would be hurt by his racist, anti-immigrant policies. With Van de Putte as Lieutenant Governor, Texans know that a repeal of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants isn’t even a remote possibility.

But this year’s election is about more than just Dan Patrick.  A vote for Leticia Van de Putte also presents a unique opportunity to reject the large-scale cowardice that pervades the Democratic Party on immigration issues. We’ve seen it with President Obama’s litany of failed promises to end deportations, and we’ve definitely seen it through Wendy Davis’ misguided attempts to seek a middle ground on border security issues. A Van de Putte win sends a clear signal to Washington and Austin that communities at the center of the immigration fight DO vote, will continue to vote, demand common-sense solutions and refuse to be ignored anymore.

There’s no way to properly convey the anger and hurt that affected families have to endure because of the nation’s immigration politics. But in this year’s election, let’s hope those same citizens don’t pass up the chance to have one of their strongest advocates yet enter the national conversation.

Leticia said it best in her recent ad… “porque nuestra comunidad nunca se rinde!”

 

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