Fraudulent Midwife Citizenship Birth Registrations: The Devastating Impact On Children Of Immigrants

Imagine living in the United States for 48 years thinking you’re a U.S. citizen . . . and then the carpet is pulled from you.

Imagine serving in the U.S. Navy for seven years believing you’re a U.S. citizen . . . only to find out two decades later, after receiving an honorable discharge, you were not born in the United States.

Imagine being a Customs and Border Patrol officer for 18 years, preventing undocumented immigrants from entering the United States . . . who suddenly learns that he is like them, an immigrant without legal documents.

That’s the story of Raul Rodriguez, now 53, who despite having won agency awards for exemplary service, is facing deportation and permanent separation from his U.S. citizen wife and children.

How did this happen?

Should Innocent Children Be Held Accountable For Misdeeds Of Parents?

When Rodriguez was about five years old, his parents sent him to live with relatives in Texas.

He was always told that he was born in the U.S. His birth certificate said he was born in the United States.

The birth certificate was fraudulent, a fact Rodriguez did not know until 2018.

One day, as he was working his Border Patrol shift, his managers approached him. They told him to turn in his badge.

The government had discovered a birth certificate for him showing he was born in Mexico.

Not believing what he was told, Rodriguez arranged a meeting with his father and government officers just a few hours later.

His father admitted the ugly and hidden reality – Rodriguez’s father and his deceased mother had paid a midwife to register a false birth certificate – a secret they kept to themselves.

Deportation charges were filed against Rodriguez.

His case represents an uncommon example of immigration reality that both immigrant friend and immigrant foe could use to shape improvements to policy shortcomings.

Such response has not been forthcoming.

Many folks on both sides of the political divide view immigration issues through a unduly narrow lens.  They reduce complex human realities to simplistic narratives which amplify their world views.

Such has been the reaction to Rodriguez’s plight.

On the one hand, pro-immigrant advocates turn a callous cheek away from Rodriguez. They assert he is receiving the pay back, the wrath of karma he deserves for having detained and deported fellow countrymen.

On the other, the government asserts he is ineligible for any immigration benefits. He falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen and illegally voted in U.S. elections.

Because the life of the law has not been logic, as Oliver Wendell Holmes explained, it has been experience, neither position is worthy of applause.

Neither cold-hearted perceptions of karma nor inflexible policy protocols can meet the needs of living situations stranger than fiction.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Children Of Immigrants Born Via Midwives

Fraudulent midwife birth certificates were not uncommon in the early and mid-1900s.

Especially in poorer communities, like southwest towns on the U.S. – Mexico borders.

Subsidized public health centers had not yet sprouted.

Travel back and forth between the two countries was fairly easy.

In my 20+ years practice as a green card attorney, I’ve been called upon to occasionally defend such individuals, 50 to 60 years after their birth, prove their citizenship.

They lived their entire lives genuinely believing they were U.S. citizens, abiding by U.S. laws. being productively employed, and raising families of their own.  Suddenly, they are facing deportation charges because they were delivered by mid-wives.

Many times, the government suspicion is wrong.

Nonetheless, defendants are put into a living hell for several years – as they endeavor to prove their legal status decades ago.

This is no simple task for many.  They were raised in places of which they barely have any memories.  Their parents or older relatives who took care of them are no longer alive.

Often, government allegations are usually related to suspicions – not concrete proof – of fraudulent birth certificates signed by midwives.

By the early 1990s, the influx of immigrants became a political hot topic.

The government began a witch hunt to challenge U.S. birth certificates signed by mid-wives.

According to the Washington Post, up to 15,000 potentially falsely registered babies were uncovered.

Over 75 mid-wife convictions followed.

The government never figured out exactly which midwife-granted birth certificates were fraudulent.

The convicted midwives were not asked to prove which children they had been delivered legally via-a-vis those delivered illegally.

Most did not keep records of their deliveries.

Based on its investigations, the government developed a list of known and suspected wrong doers.

Waivers For Fraudulent U.S. Birth Registrations By Midwives

When Rodriguez petitioned for one of his brothers living in Mexico for a green card, a USCIS officer spotted the name of one such wrong doer on his birth certificate.

The falsehood was confirmed with his father’s confession.

Rodriguez never knowingly misrepresented the truth.

Yet, the government alleges he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen.

This leaves Rodriguez with no options to legalize his status.  The charges block him from ever becoming a permanent resident through the sponsorship of his U.S. citizen wife or children.

I have a problem with this view.

In the view of immigration officials, false claims of U.S. citizenship are among the worst sins an immigrant can commit.

Although I understand and concur with the effort to weed out immigration fraud, I do not believe that children, now adults, who honestly believed they were born in the U.S. should be held accountable for falsehood.

Why?

I do not believe Rodriguez, and others like him, guilty of immigration fraud.

The wrongdoing belongs to their parents.

A statement that is false, without ever knowing it is false, is not fraud. There is no mental intention to commit a fraud.

Should individuals like Rodriguez, whose births were unknowingly registered with fraudulent midwife certificates, be given the chance to prove they deserve to continue living in the U.S.?

I believe so.

Instead of blindly punishing such persons, the government should allow them the chance  to earn a waiver of the alleged falsehood – a waiver based on the good merits of their life while they believed they were citizens.

Factors like family ties, work history, education, community contributions, and military service should be evaluated to determine whether a grant of forgiveness, a waiver, is warranted.

To the extent such evidence demonstrates good moral character, immigrants caught in this web of unknowing deceit should then be given the opportunity to continue living here as law-abiding permanent residents (and maybe citizens one day in the future) if they qualify under other legal avenues.

Isn’t that the way American justice is supposed to work?

By Carlos Batara

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