Trump administration ‘denying passports to US citizens living near Mexico border’
Tehran (KNA) - The Trump administration is increasingly cracking down on applications for passports by lifelong US residents who they suspect of being born outside the country, according to attorneys working near the US-Mexico border.
Lawyers for Hispanic Americans living near the border in Texas say their clients are increasingly being denied the documents, because the government suspects their birth certificates were falsified. These denials can put applicant's entire citizenship status in jeopardy.
Lawyers for Hispanic Americans living near the border in Texas say their clients are increasingly being denied the documents, because the government suspects their birth certificates were falsified. These denials can put applicant's entire citizenship status in jeopardy.
The apparent crackdown stems from an allegation that US government first made in the 1990s, when they claimed midwives in the border region had falsified US birth certificates for children who were actually born in Mexico. Because of this, both the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations started demanding more information from passport applicants born to midwives in the area.
The practice slowed after 2009, when the government settled a class-action lawsuit with applicants who claimed they had been unfairly denied passports. But it appears to be picking up again now, according to attorneys interviewed by both the Post and The Independent.
Source: Independent