Children born in the U.S. state of Texas will now be granted easier access to birth certificates after the State Attorney General’s office Monday settled a year-old class-action lawsuit filed by a group of Central American and Mexican immigrant parents.
"Without birth certificates, our clients lived in constant fear of having their families torn apart and their American-born children deported," Efrén Olivares, the Texas Civil Rights Project attorney who represent the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "This settlement will be life-changing for immigrant communities across the state."
Under the terms of the lawsuit, Texas officials will be required to accept valid Mexican voter ID cards, which can now be obtained via mail due to recent modifications to Mexican law.
The legal motion also compels the state to accept certain ID documents from Central Amercian parents, which can be administered by consulates within the U.S. as long as as they are signed and stamped by consular officials.
The state of Texas will now also be required to accept an expanded list of 28 secondary supporting documents such as utility bills, paycheck stubs and bank account statements.
State officials working at the Department of State Health Services have nine months to introduce the agreed-upon changes, according to the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed last year following stricter state regulations that were introduced in 2013 regarding requirements for obtaining birth certificates.
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“Questioning the citizenship of U.S.-born, citizen children of immigrant parents erodes our constitutional freedoms and protections, causes instability for parents and children, and undermines the guarantee that all of our children will unquestionably be citizens,” Said Juanita Valdez-Cox Executive Director of La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, an immigrant rights group.
The law applies only to Texas, and immigrants from Central American and Mexico, but the settlement represents a huge victory for immigrant rights because the state is a key entry point into the US for Latinos.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution automatically grants citizenship to children born in the country regardless of their parents' immigration status.