Once again the Trump administration is showing its true colors.
According to The Washington Post, “The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, possibly thousands, of Hispanic people along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies and is undertaking a widespread crackdown.”
In an address on August 20, Trump spoke to ICE and CBP agents, launching attacks against “open border extremists.” In some cases, going so far as to suddenly revoke passports of those trying to reenter the United States. The reason being, the government alleges that from the 1950s to 1990s, some midwives and physicians along the Texas-Mexico border provided US birth certificates to babies actually born in Mexico. The same midwives also delivered thousands of babies legally in the United States, proving nearly impossible to distinguish between valid and invalid documents.
Claims from the government mention a “skyrocket” in these types of cases. Individuals have been asked to convince the US of their citizenship with uncommon requests like baptismal certificates or rental agreements from childhood.
Other cases continue to arise. For many, the passport approval process has become an even more convoluted ordeal, but being forced into a scavenger hunt for evidence (childhood housing records? Really?).
It’s difficult to know where the crackdown fits into the administration’s border efforts, but one thing is clear: in the shadow of the movement of building his wall, the assault on families and children, and their “zero tolerance” policy, this administration is clearly targeting these lives, with its bigoted agenda and justifying it by any means necessary.
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