Controversy Over Midwife Births And Border Documents Continues

"Vasquez is not included in the administrative filing but hers is a familiar story to immigration lawyer Jaime Diez, who has represented cases on the ACLU's list and is Vasquez's attorney. Though she no longer has the paperwork to prove it, she says that she and a twin brother were born with a midwife in Weslaco, Texas, in July 1982. Her life remained mostly in Mexico. She attended a Mexican university and works as a teacher at a Matamoros primary school. She knew of the requirement to get a passport, passport card, or another approved document to cross the border, but said Customs officers always let her through," the Houston Chronicle writes about cases involving people who claim U.S. citizenship but had midwife or home births.

"It seems that obviously if she was born in the U.S. that under the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment she is a U.S. citizen entitled to be in the United States," FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman said. "But even U.S. citizens have to have passports or some other border-crossing authorization to enter the United States. It's perfectly legitimate for the government to enforce laws for entering without the proper documentation... It is up to the discretion of border enforcement personnel."