
The Midwives of El Paso - pmcpinto
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/midwives-el-paso/459969/?single_page=true
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dalke
"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_o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness#Administrative_obstacles)
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-
agre...](https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/castelano-v-clinton-agreement) .

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_m...](http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/13/why_has_a_texas_born_marine)
.

