Lawsuit: U.S. Citizen Children Denied Birth Certificates in Texas

"A lawsuit contends the state of Texas is routinely discriminating against the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrant parents by denying them birth certificates.

According to the civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Austin, the Texas Department of State Health Services has denied birth certificates to U.S. citizen children on the border whose parents lack citizenship or legal status.

In doing so, the state is punishing the children for the way their parents entered the country, Jennifer Harbury, an attorney with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, told NBC News. The legal aid group and the Texas Civil Rights Project are representing six U.S.-born children and their Mexican citizen mothers in the lawsuit.

"It's not up to the state to decide on immigration policy. This is a federal issue," Harbury told NBC. "The state of Texas has to accommodate these women. They can't disenfranchise them."

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the state's practice unconstitutional." - Juan Castillo, NBC News, May 28, 2015.  [More here from Law360.]