4 ms·
The Midwives of El Paso
- dalke 11y ago"In 2008, the State Department began denying passports to children with Mexican mothers whose births were presided over by midwives." This practice is horrible. It means that US citizens are unable to get a passport, and are effectively stateless. (To be technical, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness#Administrative_obstacles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness#Administrative_o... says they are "undocumented" not "stateless", but "As a practical matter, the longer a person is undocumented, the greater the likelihood that he or she will end up in a situation where no state recognizes him or her as a national.") The link goes to an ACLU action of several US citizens who were denied passports because the US no longer considers their midwife births to be valid proof of being born in the US. One is https://www.aclu.org/biography-david-hernandez https://www.aclu.org/biography-david-hernandez , from 2008. The settlement is at https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/castelano-v-clinton-agreement https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/castelano-v-clinton-agre... . But it still goes on. Claudia Palacios was in the news recently because she's another US citizen, delivered by midwife, who has been denied a US passport. http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/13/why_has_a_texas_born_marine http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/13/why_has_a_texas_born_m... .