Marshall, MN – National pro-immigrant group Cafe Con Leche Republicans today blasted the Obama administration for stripping U.S. Citizens of their citizenship under the pretext of fighting birth certificate fraud. Overzealous officials from the Department of Homeland Security and State Department are refusing to issue U.S. passports and in some cases have cancelled passports for U.S. Citizens who were birthed by midwives. One U.S. Citizen was trapped in Mexico for two years when his U.S. passport was confiscated by CBP in Laredo, following a visit with his dying Grandmother in Mexico. The alleged basis was a typographical error in his birth registration card, supposedly showing that he had been registered a few days before he was born. Another U.S. citizen had his passport voided during a visit to Mexico, resulting in his inability to return home for many months while litigation was pending. Many others have experienced similar problems.
Also, many of these U.S. Citizens have been detained for hours, sometimes days, by agents of Customs and Border Protection and pressured into signing false statements admitting they were born in Mexico, and then returned to Mexico, where it is very difficult, if not impossible, for them to prove their U.S. citizenship. According to the Government, even people with facially valid U.S. passports are not entitled to counsel when stopped at the border, or challenged at a U.S. Consulate abroad, unless and until criminal or immigration charges have been filed. Unlike criminal cases, ICE and CBP have broad discretion to detain suspected undocumented immigrants, with no right to bond. Often these citizens have limited English proficiency and do not understand legalese, and are pressured or tricked into signing these untrue statements to get out of detention, not realizing they will be deported and potentially barred for life from the nation where they were born and spent most or all their lives. This reminds us of pre-Miranda days when police often detained suspects for hours, perhaps days, pressuring them until they signed confessions.
This problem is especially severe for the elderly on fixed incomes and the mentally disabled, who often do not comprehend the complex legal issues involved with immigration law, or simply lack the estimated $5,000 to $15,000 to bring a legal case to defend their citizenship in court. Local immigration attorneys claim there are now over 500, and possibly as many as 1,000 Latino U.S. passport applications were denied, and many more Latinos likely have not applied for passports due to the issue. Local immigration attorneys are seeking class action certification in pending legal cases due to the thousands of citizens affected by this travesty of justice.
Lawsuit
The South Texas counties affected by this travesty of justice are 90% Latino. 44 States allow midwives to create documentation that result in issuance of birth certificates, yet amazingly this intense level of scrutiny only seems to be applied in predominately Latino communities.
There have been isolated instances of a few Rio Grande Valley midwives issuing false documents for births that actually took place in Mexico. However, the reaction from the Bush and Obama administrations is symptomatic of the ‘enforcement on steroids’ climate promoted by DHS under the leadership of Janet Napolitano in response to heavy public pressure to “secure the borders” before true immigration reform can be addressed . Not surprisingly, a recent report found 3,600 U.S. Citizens had been arrested and detained by ICE under the Secure Communities Program, 93% of those detained under Secure Communities are Latino versus 78% of the undocumented population, and non-criminal arrests are approaching 50%, a strong indication that Latinos stopped for traffic or other minor infractions are being arrested rather than cited in order to funnel them through jail house screening.
We call on the Obama administration to cease and desist from this appalling practice of citizenship stripping, and we call for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a complete and thorough investigation and hold those responsible accountable.
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About Us – Cafe Con Leche Republicans is a national organization of Republicans who welcome “New Americans”, defined as immigrants and family of recent immigrants. Our mission is to make America and the GOP, more welcoming to “New Immigrants” through political activism, “in-reach” and education within the Republican Party, and lobbying government to adopt more immigrant friendly policies. We also seek to bring more conservative and moderate “New Americans” to the Republican Party. These efforts will strengthen the GOP, and lead more Republicans to embrace welcoming policies for immigrants and their families. We have chapters in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Our members and leadership are predominantly Hispanic, though we define ourselves by mission and guiding principles, not ethnicity, and we welcome all who share our goals. Our leadership is 100% Republican.
From Al (note: for some strange reason comments were turned off on this post. I have turned commenting back on. Al has posted this as a comment to another post, and I have copied/pasted below verbatim so Al’s opinion is heard. We welcome different points of view as long as they are respectful, not personal attacks, etc.).
Bob, I repared a comment to your article Obama DHS Stripping… only to findout that the comment was turned off when I hit “post comment”, i was apalled. So for what its worth here it is:
During my tenure as a Special Agent with the now abolished Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Rio Grande Valley, my office investigated numerous midwives for citizenship fraud. They were complex cases because you had to separate the legitimate U.S. births that were normally filed timely and the fake registrations that were normally delayed filings. On those filings you could normally ascertain where the Mexican parents were from, go into Mexico, research the Registro Civil (office where all the births are filed in Mexico) and pull out a timely filed birth registration. That would begin the process of stripping the citizenship of a person that was not entitled to it because they did not qualify. There are only two ways a person can derive citizenship at birth, by being born in the United States, its outlying possessions, or deriving citizenship at birth from a USC father or mother. As we were trained in the Border Patrol Academy “jus soli” or jus sanguinis”. Texas Department of Vital Statistics flagged many birth that were delivered by midwives that were suspected of being involved in there false registrations. To tell you the truth I think they flagged them all. I have personal knowledge of people being denied their US passport because they were born through a midwife.
To tell you the truth I am very surprised that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is enforcing immigration law. ICE was formed by merging INS Investigations and Customs Office of Investigations. However, it seems ICE is not proud of their first name “Immigration” because they feel immigration work is too low for them or not sexy enough as working narcotics. Personally I was called by ICE to see if I could send a crew of Border Patrol Agents to check a hotel room where they (ICE agents) witnessed an alien smuggler with his load of aliens go in. This while they (ICE) were on surveillance of the room next door for narcotics. When reminded them that they were full fledged Immigration Officers, they responded that they were not in the human trafficking unit, they were narcotics. ICE is going through a process where they are now calling themselves Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (HSI/ICE). They want everyone to get familiar with the HSI name so they can drop the ICE name and drop that dreaded “immigration” title.
Immigrations laws are still alive and well. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) is still alive and well, it is still illegal to hire someone that is not authorized to work in the Unites States. The law is seldom enforced as we did it back in 80s and 90s. The fact that illegal aliens know they can still find a job in the US because of lack of enforcement continues to draw them to the US in violation of our laws .
To get a closer look at the fine work INS Special Agents did read the recently released book “The Shadow Catcher” by Hiploto Acosta former INS Agent, former District Director. Why isn’t this type of work being done today?
In closing; Homeland Security was formed to protect the homeland from terroristic threats, that should remain the focus of all DHS agencies. Leave the drug trafficking to the folks that know that best, our good friends at the Justice Department in the DEA. Surely they know their mission and don’t try to moonlight as immigration or customs officers.
From talking to the attorneys it is my understanding there has been a huge spike in passport denials during the past two years. Before Obama there were perhaps 10-20 cases per year, which seems reasonable given isolated instances of fraud by midwives. Certainly we all understand the need to investigate fraud, but what is happening is completely unreasonable.
One attorney told me he hears 3-4 complaints every day from U.S. citizens birthed by midwives whose passport applications are turned down. At first, there is a request for more information such as baptismal records, school records, affidavits, etc., but then even after providing this the passports applications are still denied. It seems that every Latino who was born in the Southwest by midwife is being denied a U.S. passport, leaving them in the situation they have to sue in federal district court, costing $5,000 to $15,000 in legal fees.
Even more disturbing are cases where citizens have been detained at or near the border, denied bail, denied access to counsel, held for days and pressured to sign statements they were born in Mexico. One citizen returning to the U.S. had his passport confiscated and he was not allowed to cross the border. He spent two years in Mexico until the issue was resolved and he was allowed back into the U.S.
Read the pending lawsuit. Class action certification has been requested.
There was an earlier class action lawsuit to force the federal government to make decisions on passport applications.
hence, my dilemma. as a lifelong democrat i am in the midst of a voter’s problem. i do not agree fundamentally with the values of one party and the other has dropped the ball. i understand the divided congress, obstructionism and all that. i feel personally let down in the comprehensive immigration reform area by both major parties. i am in the final decision making process whether to vote my party or go over to a third party. again, my dilemma
The Obama administration has more than just dropped the ball on immigration reform. They have aggressively stepped up enforcement, while at the same time blaming Republicans for their inaction, even during the first two years when Obama had cloture-proof majority in the Senate and strong majority in the House. Obama is making the same promises again now that it is election time.
There are problems on both sides of the aisle. I would point out that Bush made an honest effort at CIR, and was able to get most moderate Republicans and a few conservatives to back CIR, only to see Harry Reid refuse to allow consideration of most Republican amendments, and stripping of guest worker reforms many moderates wanted. There were 70 cloture votes to introduce CIR, but not enough to close debate, with many moderate Republicans who voted “yes” to introduce CIR voting against closing debate, saying their amendments weren’t considered. It was REID who withdrew the CIR bill, not Republicans, but it was REID who blamed Republicans for the failure of CIR.
The reason I mention this is that Obama was part of Reid maneuvering to sabotage Bush’s CIR, and with this history now many moderate Republicans don’t trust Obama or Reid. Without that trust bipartisan action to reform immigration is very difficult. IMHO CIR will not happen while Obama is president or Reid is senate majority leader.
I particularly agree with “Al.” Even today, I can find you a brujo/curandera or partera (sometimes one in the same) in the RGV… and once you get up the Rio Bravo beyond Rio Grande City or north of Cameron and southern Hildago County, they are more prevalent. And when I was a kid, and later when back “home” for college… well that was 35 to 50 years ago… Some of this is/was a function of culture and some of it a function of availability and cost of “modern” health care. My Minnesota wife tells me about the number of her relatives born– only a generation or two ago– at home on the farm… but I guess her “people of pallor” are not (currently) suspect, and are therefore not subject to this kind of heightened scurtiny.
Funny…Minnesota is a border state, but there doesn’t seem to be a problem with DOS or DHS seeking to strip citizenship from midwife birthed citizens, and we do have illegal immigration from Canada.
Yes Miguel parteras and birthing centers are still popular somewhat in the valley. Parteras were a common health care alternative partucularly with the migrant workers. By migrants I dont mean illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, or what ever the correct term is today but hard working people that we normally refer to as miigrants for people who move from place to place with thier family to pick the seasonal crops like my ancestors. This type of health care might gain popularity again if we implement ‘Obama Care” fully.
We most decidedly do have illegal immigration coming across our northern border. Again– many years ago– my first serious girlfriend (with a French surname) was from Vermont. I went up to visit her having just finished my undergraduate work in Texas, and was surprised to find a situation not dissimilar (qualitatively) but less pronounced in scope (quantitatively) from the RGV; meaning I met a whole lot of folks with family on both sides of the border, who weren’t terribly concerned about that “arbitrary” line on the map. I have insisted for years and years, that “cultura no respecta fronteras!”) A French surnamed professor at St. John’s in Collegeville– whom I shall not name– orginially from Maine, sheepishly admitted to me that some of his recent ancestors “wandered across the Border” from Quebec…
Al, I plan on giving you a call in the near future; we don’t live that far apart… I’m in St. Cloud, and business takes me to Wilmore periodically, which isn’t far from you.
One last observation/question: who is the Raoul Lowery Contreras character, and why does he get so much “air time” on your site? I have read through a couple of his posts, and have seen/heard all his hyper-Liberal Democrat talking points far too many times before. I see a post from him, and– I wanting to ingnore it– I risk not looking at the Cafe con Leche site at all… he is this off-putting. Life is too short to voluntarily subject myself those such as he (and his ilk), and I normally don’t. His “tone” alone (e.g. “Rot in Hell!” inter alia) is hardly consistent with Cafe con Leche’s standards for respectful discourse.
Not sure where Al is located, but I am located in Marshall in SW MN.
A number of us blog at this site but some are extremely busy with work at the moment and not blogging as much.
Raoul is the author of 13 books which you can find on Amazon, and is a life long Republican who does not like the John Tanton types coming into the GOP and giving the party of Lincoln a bad reputation.
Bob Quasius, Sr.
Sorry, I meant “Bob” not “Al”… mil desculpas; names are important and I am particularly embarassed when I get one wrong.
When you head to Marshall, give me a ‘heads up’ and I’ll meet you over coffee.
For BOB (not Al) Quasius–
Mil disculpas– not “desculpas”– sometimes I get my Spanish/Portuguese “banda sonora”/”trilha sonora” crossed…
Tell me if you want to act in group, like lulac,I am very interested, I have been denied, I am not planning to apply again, until everything gets better.
I sent you an e-mail about this. There is a class action lawsuit about this.