Washington Post: US Denies Passports to Border Citizens

The United States is increasingly denying passports to citizens who live along the Mexican border – even those with official birth certificates. The target: babies born at home, often by midwives. The policy was in effect since 2000, but enforcement has increased. “The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown,” reports Kevin Sieff for the Washington Post. “In some cases, passport applicants with official U.S. birth certificates are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. In others, they are stuck in Mexico, their passports suddenly revoked when they tried to reenter the United States.” The US government suggests that some midwives – used for childbirth because of high US health care costs – issued fraudulent birth certificates during the previous century. The government cannot distinguish between real and false documents and previously requested evidence of prenatal care, a baptismal certificate, rental agreements from decades ago when the applicants were infants. The government balks at releasing statistics or a list of problem caregivers so applicants assuming they are citizens are caught off guard. – YaleGlobal