PHOTOS: Ted Quant & Harvey Finkle
WESLACO, TX — The state of Texas is already practicing Donald Trump’s and other candidates’ proposals to deny citizenship to U.S. born children whose parents are undocumented.
The children’s parents are undocumented and do not have the documents the state of Texas suddenly decided to require. The old regulations said that a registration, driver’s license, or voter identification card from the parents’ country of origin were enough for the parents to obtain a birth certificate for their U.S. born child.
As of 2013, however, the Department of Vital Statistics decided that such documentation is no longer sufficient. Texas knows a big percentage of undocumented parents will not be able to provide the documents the state is asking for.
This is happening alongside of the large influx of immigrants from Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala who are fleeing the violence, much of which is U.S. inspired, in their respective countries. The real reason the state of Texas is imposing these new regulations is to criminalize undocumented immigrants and their children.
The position the state of Texas has taken leaves U.S. born children undocumented. The children cannot prove they are U.S. citizens because they do not have a birth certificate. Furthermore, the state of Texas makes them second-class citizens exposing them to all kinds of abuses. They will also be denied benefits like an education and medical treatment—benefits every other U.S. citizen has.
The state of Texas treats undocumented immigrants like criminals. Undocumented immigrants have to hide in the shadows. It is for these reasons that parents decided to speak out against the new regulations imposed by the state of Texas. They do not want their U.S. born children treated in this manner, and with the possibility of never obtaining a birth certificate. Different organizations have offered support to the parents. The parents, along with these organizations, have filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the state’s unlawful and repressive practice.
The ramifications of the new regulations are much more than just denying citizenship to children. This is an attack on the U.S. working class as a whole; it gives the government power to deny citizenship to any U.S. born child. No one is safe.
This is happening because the U.S. economic crisis is forcing the rich/capitalists to find a group of vulnerable workers and use them as an excuse for the economic crisis so the working class does not see who the real enemy is. As the way products are produced—from manual labor to robotics—with the resulting low wage or permanent unemployment in many industries, the capitalists need to make it seem as if one section of workers is causing the problem rather than the system itself.
This is why undocumented workers and their children born in the U.S. are constantly attacked. The capitalists will try to keep their power at any cost. We must not fall for the capitalist propaganda. We must defend the undocumented workers. If we don’t, the entire working class—regardless of nationality or color—might be next.
