In a series of workshops I did this week, I asked students if a person’s existence can be illegal. It certainly feels legal to attempt to erase us. Pero what about destroying proof that we exist and have specific rights? That may be happening in Arizona with the birth certificates of Mexican-American citizens being ripped up.

From amigo Manuél:

Here are descriptions of two previously unpublished accounts of U.S.-born Mexican-American teenagers who had their birth certificates ripped up by Customs and Border Patrol Agents. I have information on other similar cases, but only time to write up the details of these two, along with summaries and links to two other recent cases published elsewhere.

Just to be clear, a national identity card doesn’t solve these problems: in many cases of U.S. citizens deported ICE or Customs and Border Patrol doesn’t even check the digital files that have evidence matching the identity cards presented by the individual with the information in their databases– as was the case at several points for Mark Lyttle. If no one bothers to check that a passport (or national identity card) matches the information in a law enforcement database– as should happen when a U.S. citizen objects to having his proper identity disregarded by an agent or an immigration judge — then having a national card does nothing and is no improvement over our current system.

Mexican-Americans with Birth Certificates Border Patrol Destroys or Ignores
1. Mario, 17, was born in a Colorado hospital in the late 1980s and I’ve seen his birth certificate and hospital records.

Mario’s mother is a U.S. citizen and his father Mexican. When Mario was a toddler his father and mother separated and Mario’s father brought him to Mexico. His father’s plan was to raise Mario, and then he would return to the United States. When Mario was 17 he decided it was time to “go back to the United States and claim his destiny,” according to an individual familiar with this case. Mario had uncles in Tucson who visited Mario frequently in Mexico. He was especially interested in finding his mother. A birth certificate is a valid form of identification for entering the United States, and Mario thought he was all set. (Mario couldn’t obtain a U.S. passport from Mexico because if you’re 17 or under, that requires the presence of both legal parents.)

In early 2007, when Mario tried to return through Nogales, Arizona the Customs and Border Patrol agent, the attorney said, “tore it up on the spot. They told him, ‘It’s not real. Go away, kid, this is fraud.’ There goes your Colorado birth certificate. Go away, have a nice day.” Mario was upset and insisted he was a U.S. citizen. “They told him that if he says he’s Mexican he can leave, but if he keeps saying he’s a citizen he’ll be detained at the Nogales border patrol station and arrested.” He signed and returned to Mexico.

There are at least four other cases of this happening, as reported by States Without Nations.